Orange Delinquent
by OnigiriKami
Summary: "... What is happiness?" Ichigo, a pessimistic delinquent meets Rukia and slowly learns happiness again. But they don't realize that both of their dark pasts are connected... "Hmm... something warm?" RxR ICHIRUKI CHAPTER 13 UP!
1. Chapter 1: An Awkward Encounter

**OnigiriKami: **Hello there! I know that this is my third fanfic, and that I still have two other stories that aren't finished yet, but I don't know why! I just have a habit of making new stories while I'm stilling finishing the rest! So I am sorry if I disappointed you!!

I started this story, because I got inspired by.... I don't now! Just thought it up in my head! DAMN I'm a daydreamer, DAMN IT!

**PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach!!**

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Two teenage boys wearing the same identical school uniforms laid on the ground, a pool of blood had been trickling out of their face, for they had been bashed in the same area for many times. There was still one man out of all the three standing in the middle of the alleyway. He trembled at the man who had single handedly beat them up and cowered at the man's scary gaze.

"Y-You... orange hair... s-scowl face.. y-your that delinquent!" the man said so shakily that he could wet himself.

"Ehh~ you know me? Heh, your not as dumb as you look." the orange haired teenager rose his left foot up, until it reached above his own face, "You should be grateful of knowing the guy who just made you into a sandwich!" he let his foot fly, plummeting like a sling-shot on the trembling man's head. With the big impact, the man gave a final shriek before he lost consciousness.

The orange head looked at them, he was smiling in pleasure of their misery. He was walking out of the alleyway, but before he went entirely out, he spat on the unconscious bodies, showing as much disrespect as possible. When he had walked completely out of the stinking garbage alleyway, he saw a man leaning against the wall at his right side. The man had a bluish hair and had sharp eyes under his glasses. He looked at the orange head in disapproval, he shook his head at him, before he got himself off of the wall.

"Another one, Kurosaki?"

"Shut up! You know how I am whenever guys pick on my hair!" Ichigo said with the scowl deepening on his face.

"Huh, you never back down in a fight." Ishida said in a mocking tone, as if he had memorized everything Ichigo said.

"Yeah, exactly." Ichigo dusted off his white school shirt and afterwards, he shoved his hands in his grey pants pocket.

"To proud, aren't you, Mr. Delinquent?" Ishida's mocking tone never went away. He followed behind Ichigo with his hands in his pocket also.

"Shut up, don't call me that." Ichigo said so quietly, which showed that he was serious. "Damn those dumb ass stereotypes!"

"Heh, then why do you act like one, looking like one, and fight like one?"

"No particular reason, I'm just like that." Ichigo's eyes became distant as he said that. "I was always like this."

"Kurosaki..." before Ishida could finish what he had said, Ichigo passed by him.

"Hurry up, we'll be late."

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"This is Kuchiki Rukia, she has just transfered from Inuzuri." Ochi-sensei said excitedly. "Come in, closer, closer!" she said to a petite girl. She had dark black hair that had showed off her brilliant violet eyes. She wore the customary school outfit for summer that had a yellow wool vest on top of a white collared shirt, grey skirt, red ribbon with a golden badge in the middle, and the white school shoes.

She came steadily to Ochi-sensei, stopped, and face the class, "Nice to meet you all, my name is Kuchiki Rukia!" she bowed low to a forty-five degree angle. "Please take care of me!"

Suddenly, the class door had been slammed open and their was a flash of orange coming in. It bumped into the new transfer student, which made her topple over to the floor. Desperate for reaching something to hold on to, so that she wouldn't fall, she grabbed onto the person who had pushed her. But unexpectedly, he had fell down also.

Rukia's eye twitched in pain at the impact of the ground colliding on her butt. She was in so much pain that she had not realize someone was towering over her. When the pain in her bottom had slowed down, she saw how she was positioned. She was laying on the ground and someone was on top of her, with both hands blocking her sides. She glanced up to see who it was, and she flinched a little. It was a guy with amber eyes staring at her with the most hardest scowl that she had ever seen on a person's face, and he had orange hair.

She went tense under his gaze and she fought back at him with her stare harding. She was not going to let someone intimidate her on the first day of her new school. She saw him a little surprised at her reaction, then his eyes returned to normal. Then just slowly, he pecked her on the cheek with his lips.

"Huh?" she said, almost confused at what he did, then her face had gone red. She kicked underneath him, and shoved him up above the ground making him get off of her. She started to wiped her cheek and continuously rubbed it back and forth, as if trying to wash away the feeling of it. "W-What was that for!?"

He stared, unreadable of what he was thinking, then he got off of the ground and walked towards where he sat. All students were quiet and were staring at them. Then he stopped for a while, before he turned around and said:

"It's a warning to not get close to me, or you'll get more of those."

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**OnigiriKami: **Ehh... nothing much really in this chapter, just a introduction. And I think I'm going to take this chapter slowly.

Also, do not think that the kiss was 'more than', he just wanted Rukia to fear her and not get near her, also this is kind of stupid, but let's say that, that was his first kiss ;)

So how did you like my masterpiece?! MWAHAHAHAHAHA (randomness~)

**REVIEW!!**


	2. Chapter 2: Another Awkward Encounter

**OnigiriKami: **Hello there!! Me again!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This chapter is pretty fast going and is pretty good! When I read it over, it was exciting XD! Hope you guys enjoy it!!!!!!! Please enjoy!!!! If you don't then I'll slap myself until I can please you all!! (yes I would do that much for my fans!!...joking... =.=')

**REEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach! If I did then I would name it MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!**

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_**Last Chapter...**_

_"Huh?" she said, almost confused at what he did, then her face had gone red. She kicked underneath him, and shoved him up above the ground making him get off of her. She started to wiped her cheek and continuously rubbed it back and forth, as if trying to wash away the feeling of it. "W-What was that for!?"_

_He stared, unreadable of what he was thinking, then he got off of the ground and walked towards where he sat. All students were quiet and were staring at them. Then he stopped for a while, before he turned around and said:_

_"It's a warning to not get close to me, or you'll get more of those."_

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"Idiot! who would go near you!" Rukia yelled out and picked herself off of the ground.

"Kurosaki! Your late aren't you! Well forget about it, after all you are a yankee*!" the sensei said with a carefree attitude. She then stared back at Rukia and then she searched around the class room for an empty desk. "HAH! Found one! Kuchiki, you can sit next to Kurosaki!" she pointed at an empty desk that was four rows away from the window.

Rukia's mouth literally fell off of her face. The desk that she was going to spend the rest of her school life in, was next to the orange punk that had kissed her! She grumpily dragged her feet to her new seat and sat down with a loud bang on her butt. She had regretted doing that afterwards; her butt had went sore again. She heard the door opening up again to reveal a tall bluish haired guy.

"Ara? Uryuu? This is very rare to see you so late! Take a seat also!"

Ishida walked to the sixth row and stopped at the desk that was the second closest to the front. He adjusted his glasses and stared at the orange head before he sat down.

Rukia glanced left of her.

_'What the hell is his problem?!'_

_'Did I do anything wrong, dammit!'_

_'Damn bastard, trying to act cool when he's not! And what's up with that constipated looking face!?'_

"Oi, quit staring." Rukia got caught by surprise when the orange head had talked to her without even looking at her. He then turned his body around to face her, which made her jump a little in her seat. He stared at her with his eyes staring directly into hers. A sign of intimidation.

"Shut up. Who would go love-struck at you! Don't get high and mighty just because you were born in a good place."

"Who said you were 'love-struck'?" his voice became arrogant and he smiled amusedly before he turned back at the chalkboard. He used his right arm as support for his head to lean on.

_'Bastard! I'll get you!'_

"Idiot." he mumbled.

_'Definitely!'_

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**_Lunch..._**

"Kuchiki-san! Would you like to eat with us?!" said a girl with light orange hair. There were two girls behind her. One of the girls were tall with black spiked hair and the other was a light red head with glasses. "Oh! We haven't introduced our selfs! My name's Inoue Orihime, the girl with the black hair is Arisawa Tatsuki, and the last one is Honshou Chizuru!"

Rukia was just walking to a nearby field, and she stopped to stare at them, "Sorry, I'm meeting with someone." she smiled apologetically at her classmates.

"Ahh! Then next time you can eat with us?!" Orihime asked hopefully.

"Uhh.. I'll think about it!" Rukia turned around and quickly ran off towards the center of the Karakura High School's field, without waiting for Orihime's reply. As she stopped to the appointed meeting place she saw, waiting there, was a red head who walked impatiently back and forth. He had a white bandanna sashed tightly on his forehead and he had weird black eyebrows. He was grumpy and did not realize that Rukia was behind him. Rukia kicked her foot in his butt and made him jump.

"Oi, Renji, what are you doing? Pacing around like a lost dog!" Rukia said with a brighter voice and smiled at him. "So how's honor classes doing for you?"

"That hurt, Rukia! Damn!" Renji said with a grumpy expression that ignored Rukia's question which then changed into a smiling one also, "So how's first day in Karakura High."

Rukia face started to frown before she answered the question.

"Not really good!" she sat down in the field and Renji joined.

"What's wrong Rukia? Did something happen?! Tell me! I'll deal with any bastard!" he was grabbing onto Rukia's shoulder on both sides and was shaking her.

"Quit it, Renji!" she pulled both of Renji's gigantic hands off of her shoulder, "Why would a girl tell her problems to a boy!?"

"Tch. Your not really a girl..." Renji mumbled.

"Shut up!" Rukia yelled in irritation of Renji's comment.

"So who is this kid?"

"I don't know his name, but his hair is very significant..."

"What!?" Renji's eyes became to widen as Rukia mentioned about the person's hair being rare. "What's his hair color, Rukia?!" Renji asked desperately and his eyes showed that he knew something that Rukia didn't.

"O-Orange."

Renji fell silent and stared gapingly at her.

"Do you know who that is?!" his voice now turning into a deep concern.

"W-What?! I don't know!"

"That's Kurosaki Ichigo! He's bad! Don't stay near him, Rukia! Don't even try to pick a fight against him!"

"Tch! Aren't we from Inuzuri?! One of the most bad cities in Japan?! We can handle anything!"

"NO! Seriously, Rukia, he's bad! He's been beating guys up ever since middle school!-" Renji was cut off by Rukia.

"And how do you know all of these information when we both just started school together? Aren't they just rumors to scare us newbies?" Rukia asked as if she didn't believe a word that Renji was saying. Then she jumped a little, when Renji place his hands on her shoulder again and was staring fiercely into her eyes. She knew now that Renji was being serious.

"Stay away from him, Rukia."

"O-Okay."

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**_Next Day..._**

Rukia and Renji walked to their home from school, as usual. They had been living together ever since they both had met each other at Inuzuri. Inuzuri was the most vile and poorest city there was. All the children were abandoned and if most of them were lucky, they would survive. Rukia and Renji was one of the lucky ones, but miserably, there friends had not made it. Each day, they grew tired of the trash like city, and Renji had worked to safe up their money, so that they could get out of that horrible place. And finally, they had. The city Karakura was their new home.

They walked near the road where their was a knoll that sloped down to a little river on their right side, and an huge overhead bridge was right on top of one part of the knoll. Stairs lead to the peaceful river, but it wasn't at peace at all. As the two went closer to the overhead bridge, they heard grunting and loud crashes underneath it.

"What's going on?" Rukia asked Renji, who just shrugged. She stood where she was for a minute before she ran to the direction of the noise, "Renji! I'm going to check out what's going on!" she ran down the slope, slipping on some of the wet grass, before she made it half way down the knoll.

The distant clanging and grunts became louder as she approached under the overhead bridge. But as she went nearer, the noise had suddenly died down. As she stepped into the dark shadows under the bridge she flinched when she took a step forward and felt something big under her foot, it even made a painful noise as she went on top of it. She squinted her eyes to see what it was and she almost toppled backwards in surprise.

It was an unconscious bloody body of a teenage boy.

Rukia turned around and searched the place, and what she saw had made her panic. Five other bodies that were also tainted in crimson blood were sprawled everywhere. They almost look dead, as their backs barely rose and fall to show that they were still breathing. As Rukia took in what she was seeing, she acted immediately and took out her cell phone to call the police. As she slowly dialed 119* and was about to press the send button, she was stopped as a strong hand had gripped her arm tightly, she froze everything that she did and her mind was blank in horror.

"I.. wouldn't do that... if I were you...." said a voice that came in gasps. His voice was hoarse and had a dangerous presence to it.

Rukia slowly turned her head around to see who was securing her from calling the police. Her eyes widened as she caught the familiar glimpse of orange. She stared at the same deleterious amber eyes that had deep buried furrowed eyebrows.

"Kurosaki, Ichigo!" Rukia gasped, her voice was in confusion. He was standing before her, out of breath and blood was trickling out of his forehead, also his shirt was slowly soaking with blood. What was even more confusing and scary was that he was standing near the beaten up bodies.

_'W-Why is Kurosaki Ichigo here? D-Did he really do this? Was Renji right?!'_

Ichigo squinted his eyes at her, and let go of her arm for a second before he grabbed her school shirt by the collar. "You..." he closed his eyes slowly and came closed to Rukia's face, and it had made her close her eyes instantly.

There was a silence, before a heavy weight had landed on Rukia's chest that made her fall on her butt. She snapped open her eyes and saw the unconscious Ichigo sleeping on her lap.

"Rukia!" Renji was running down the slope to Rukia's direction. He then saw the scene that was right in front of him. "W-What the hell happening here!?-K-Kurosaki Ichigo!?"

Rukia stared at Ichigo for a little while, before she held him by supporting him with her shoulder.

"Help me Renji!"

"Are you crazy!? Shouldn't we call the police?!"

"Shut up and just listen to what I say! So come on and help me out, you stupid pineapple head!" Rukia yelled, frustrated at how Renji was not cooperating.

"But Rukia! He's dangerous!"

There was a silence that was created after what Renji had said. Rukia's eyes were covered with her bangs and she carried him silently. She passed Renji, who was shocked of what Rukia was doing. Then he heard her say something that had made him feel guilty:

"I know that he's dangerous! But leaving alone someone that you know and just walk away from them when they need help... is low!"

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**OnigiriKami: **I know! The days went by really fast! But it was just to get the story started into a good pace, or you'll just be reading a boring sloooooooow story. Well I made Rukia and Renji live together, but don't worry, it's nothing more than a sister-brother relationship!!

So how is the Ichigo here? Did I make him OOC?! If I did then I'm very VERY sorry (sorry, I apologize way to much, I should be nicknamed 'Wabisuke' because I apologize WAY to much)!

Also, I updated faster than usual, so be happy! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

**_Definitions:_**

yankee* = That's what they call a delinquent in Japan

119* = Same thing as 911 but in Japan it is dialed backwards (weiiiirrrrrdddd)

One more thing! Please vote in my poll in my profile! I am in need of opinions from my reviewers, so please vote! It'll be helpful!!

**Review pwease!! **


	3. Chapter 3: Going to be a Living Hell

**OnigiriKami: **Hello everybody!! I've come again with chapter 3!! WOOHOO!! Well this chapter was made about a week ago, but I needed information gathering, and I have two other stories that I work on..... so it took a long time to update.... -.-'.... Well enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH!!!**

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**Last Chapter...**

_"But Rukia! He's dangerous!"_

_There was a silence that was created after what Renji had said. Rukia's eyes were covered with her bangs and she carried him silently. She passed Renji, who was shocked of what Rukia was doing. Then he heard her say something that had made him feel guilty:_

_"I know that he's dangerous! But leaving alone someone that you know and just walk away from them when they need help... is low!"_

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Rukia walked to the apartment that her and Renji were living in. Beside her, Renji was holding the unconscious Ichigo. Rukia had not forgotten about the other six people, before she left to her apartment, she called the ambulance to pick them up. She had only taken Ichigo because she only knew him out of all the people. She also wanted to do something else to him....

Rukia shoveled through her school bag to get out the apartment key. She unlocked the door and opened it. She held the door so that Renji could come in also. After Renji was inside, Rukia slammed the door behind her and went to the hallway past their small living room. She held Renji's room door open for Renji to go in with Ichigo.

"W-Wait, hold it! I'm not bringing this guy to my room!" Renji refused. "If he would go into anyone's room, it should be yours! You're the one that told me to bring him!" Renji saw that Rukia slowly walked behind him, then he winced when he felt her hard kick landing on his butt. It had a lot of force, that he was flown into his room.

"Shut up, Renji! Ichigo's a boy! Do you want him to sleep in the same room as me?!" Rukia asked Renji.

"N-No..."

"Good! Then get a futon ready for him!" Rukia said, while she went to the living room. She walked towards the little furniture cabinet in the corner of the room and opened it. As she opened the cabinet, she had found what she was expecting, a first-aid kit. Rukia rushed to Renji's room again to see Ichigo placed on the futon as Rukia had ordered. "Renji.... take his shirt off......"

"W-WHAT?!" Renji looked bewildered at Rukia, "Wait.... can you repeat that?" Renji said, while laughing as if Rukia had said a joke.

"Take off his shirt."

"WHAT?! NO WAY, RUKIA!! That's just wrong!" Renji complained.

"And what's so wrong about that? You both are boys aren't you?" Rukia said, "If I were a boy, then I would have done it myself, but.... if you want me to look at a bare guy and ruin my pure innocent eyes forever then......"

"Okay! Okay!" Renji said in defeat. He then jumped a little when he had not expected Rukia to throw a first-aid kit at him.

"Wrap his wounds up if you see any!" with that, Rukia left the room.

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Rukia had been waiting for thirty minutes and Renji was still in the room. She was playing with a black marker in her hand. She could hear Renji's grumbling and complaints all the way from the living room. She sighed then glanced at the little clock that hung on a wall.

"Renji! You'll be late for work!" Rukia said, as she instantly saw what time it was.

Renji had been working part-time at a restaurant to make money for them to live their lives without any trouble. He had to cover for the rent, groceries, and for school. Rukia would also help sometimes, but Renji had refused for her to work everyday, because he wanted her to focus on school more. Renji was like a sister-complexed brother. He would always worry about Rukia a lot.

"Shit! Hold on!" Renji yelled from his room. After a few more seconds, Renji came out of the room, he had some blood on his hand from Ichigo's wound. "I'm done Rukia!"

"Finally! Hold on before you leave Renji! I want to show you something!" Rukia walked quietly into the room, where Ichigo was resting in. She took the black marker from her hand and opened the cap.

"W-What are you doing, Rukia?" Renji asked awkwardly while entering the room.

"It's pay back!" Rukia yelled triumphantly, but before she could doodle on Ichigo's face, Renji stopped her arm for a while and looked at her straight in the face.

"Is this the real reason why you wanted to bring Ichigo to our house?"

"......."

Renji shook his head, "I knew it... I'm going to get ready for work." Renji left the room to the bathroom so that he could wash up.

Rukia stared at the lightly breathing Ichigo and started off to go close to Ichigo's cheek again. She was going to make a good, dark, and long mustache on his face. She was now millimeters away from where Ichigo's cheeks were. But before she could land a mark, she flinched as she saw the orange head's amber eyes suddenly open. He turned to stare at her for a second, and the only thing that Rukia could think of was to laugh akwardly and wave 'hi'.

"Ahahaha..... hi?" Rukia saw Ichigo's scowl hardening and he grabbed her arm instantly to flip her underneath him. He pinned her arms to the ground and stared directly into her violet eyes. She blushed to see that he was still half naked with only wrappings of bandages on, she had not noticed it, because when he was sleeping Renji had deliberately hid his chest with a blanket, so she instantly closed her eyes. She struggled underneath him, to get out of his grip, but it was so strong that she could not get out of it. "L-Let go!"

But he did not let go, he just made his grip stronger. "Where am I?!" he demanded. His shoulders went tense as he spoke. He didn't trust anyone.

"Ah! That hurts!" Rukia yelled, her eyes snapped open from the pain and was trying to wriggle out of his clutches, "First let go and then I'll tell you!" He didn't listen, but he had loosened his grip to make Rukia talk with less pain, "YOU'RE AT MY HOUSE!! NOW LET GO!!" But as Rukia complained, he did not listen again, until he winced in pain did Rukia had time enough to get out. She saw that Ichigo dropped to the floor with his hand on a spot of his skin that had blood oozing out of it again. Rukia looked around Renji's room to see the aid kit that was left behind. She hurriedly opened it up and took out a roll of cloth. "Here! I'll wrap this around you!"

Ichigo batted away the cloth and painfully said, "Give me some alcohol, a needle, and any string!" Rukia stared at him like he was cuckoo. Then he winced, "Move your ass!" Rukia went up from where she was and ran to the door to get what Ichigo had wanted.

"W-What are you going to do with these?" Rukia asked hesitantly. Ichigo struggled to get up and he rested his head on Rukia's lap, "W-What are you doing?!"

"Shut up! Let me borrow your leg for a while!" Ichigo got the alcohol and slowly unscrewed the bottle. He tilted it near his wound.

"D-Don't tell me your--" Rukia's eyes had narrowed as Ichigo put the stinging liquid onto his open wound. She felt his whole body tense. He was closing his eyes and was biting his bottom lip hard. Rukia saw that his wound was bleeding more now, "See! You made it bleed more!"

"Gi...." Ichigo said breathlessly, "Give me a towel!" this time Ichigo's voice had a lot of force in it. Rukia gently put his head down to the ground and ran to the bathroom in where Renji was. She yanked the door open and didn't care that Renji was about to undress.

"Rukia!" Renji said with his cheeks red. He held a blue towel and he was only wearing a boxer.

"Let me borrow that!" Rukia swiped the towel away from Renji and hurried back to the room. She saw that Ichigo was closing his eyes and his brows were knitted in the middle. She put Ichigo's head up and rested it on her lap; he opened his eyes to what she had done, surprise flashing quickly in his eyes, "Here! I have the towel!" he yanked it out of her hands and started to gently dab it on the wound. The blood soaked the blue towel. _'Uhh! That's going to leave a stain!'_

He then got the needle and the black string that Rukia brought and raised it to her face, "My head's spinning, so put the thread in the needle for me."

"O-Okay!" Rukia got the needle and the thread. Her hands were shaking somehow. It took her a few seconds to put on the thread before handing it to Ichigo, but he shook his head at her.

"You have to do it.... since Ishida's not here with the surgical suture, I have to use a thread until I find Ishida, and I'm to dizzy to stitch myself, so you have to do it." Ichigo said.

"B-But! What if I poke your flesh on accident!? What will happen if I don't sow your skin on right?!" Rukia asked shakily.

"It's okay! I'll be okay, I'll just find Ishida to help me afterwards! But right now we have to close up the wound!" Ichigo said, anger was in his voice. Then he closed his eyes as he felt another wave of pain.

Rukia gulped and slowly put the needle through his flesh, in which Ichigo reacted with a grunt. She put the needle on the other flesh that was not connected to the one that she had just put on. She yelped a little when she touched his warm blood on her hand. She pulled tightly at the string to make the flesh touch each other. Her hands yanked away when she felt Ichigo's body suddenly wincing. "A-Are you okay?!"

Ichigo's eyes were closed and his tone was strained, "I'm fine, just hurry up!"

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Rukia was finally done, she had been sweating hard and each grunt that Ichigo had made, made Rukia panic. After the stitching, Rukia's hands shook violently, the blood on her hands were going to make her vomit. She ran to the bathroom, washed her hands for almost an hour, and then went to the toilet to puke, but she never did. It was just an upset feeling in her stomach.

Renji had gone already. It was chaos when he went barging into the room and seeing what Rukia had done. He had scowled her, but Rukia had shooed him away to his work before he could complain more.

It was only Rukia and the sleeping Ichigo in the house.

Ichigo had first refused to stay in the house, but a reason made him stay. He had been punched straight in the face by Renji when he had tried to leave the house. Apparently, Renji had not left his work yet, and was standing outside of the apartment, contemplating if he should stay home.

Rukia walked into the room where the dangerous teen was sleeping. But the strange thing was, was that when he was sleeping, he didn't look scary at all... he looked more like he was at peace. His brows weren't furrowed like usual, so he looked more relaxed than he usually appeared.

Rukia sat besides him. He was still half-naked. Rukia had noticed the large numbers of scars on his chest, and she took a closer look. Some of them had looked older than the others and some of them looked newer than the others, and she saw the stitching that she had done. She smoothly ran a finger on one scar, she was curious of how a scar felt like, she had never gotten one that was as huge as his. Then her heart almost stopped when she heard Ichigo's voice.

"Stop touching, it tickles." Ichigo said with his eyes still closed, but his brows furrowed slowly.

"Ah! Sorry! I just wanted to know how a scar felt like!" Rukia said, her face was blushing, because she had been caught touching someone's bare skin.

.......

.......

.......

"How did you get those?" Rukia boldly broke the silence between them. She saw his eyes slowly opening to look at the ceiling of the apartment.

"From fighting."

"But, how can you get them from just punches?"

"Some bastards that I fight have knives."

Rukia's eyes widened, "Then you should stop fighting! Later on you'll regret it when you turn up dead!" Rukia saw the far away look in Ichigo's eyes, he then had a sorrowful gaze that made Rukia flinch a little. She had never expected those eyes from him.

"I don't care, as long as no one mess with me, then I won't either," he then tried to raise his body, and he stared at Rukia with eyes that Rukia couldn't read, "And you, don't stay near me." he grunted a little as he dizzily walked to the exit of the room.

"H-Hey! Wait! You have to rest a little!" Rukia yelled at him, then caught up, and blocked the door, "You're not leaving here for a while, until your wounds are healed!"

"Get out of the way! These wounds will just reopen if I don't get professional help! The thread's to weak to hold the cut!" he yelled back at her, then his voice became weaker and hoarse, "Move."

Rukia stood her ground and thought for a while, "......No."

"What?"

"I said 'No'." her eyes glared at him, "I told you, you're not leaving here until your good enough to walk!" she pushed him gently, which made him fall back more than how much strength was put in, "See! Your so weak that I can even push you aside!"

"Either you let me out and we'll never butt into each other's lives again, or I stay and I'll make your life a living hell."

Her glare hardened, "I've already lived a hell before, and I can endure it again."

Ichigo first glared at her then he smirked with amusement, before his body loosened and he fell backwards onto the floor sleeping.

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**OngiriKami: ***nervous* well this chapter made me embarrassed, because I've never really written violence.... well when I was younger, I used to always write playboys for amusement, with a bitter history.... yeah I was weird and kind of crazy when I was little... well tell me if this chapter was good enough for you all!! Also I know how lots of girls like a bad Ichigo ;)

HAHAHAHA! Uryuu does surgical suture on Ichigo!! Finally his sowing is recognized as a mean of saving lives!!

And Rukia's kinda jumpy in this chapter.... so I'm sorry if I made her a little OOC or something like that....

Rukia has accepted living hell with Ichigo! Will Ichigo really make her life hell.. or will they slowly... become friends .......? (yeah, Ichigo might be living with her for about 2-3 days before he goes and finds Uryuu... or Uryuu finds him first..... and I don't want them to instantly have feelings for each other for a mere 2-3 days!)

Also, can someone correct me! Umm.... does Ichigo calls Uryuu or Ishida? (i forgot....)

REVIEW!!! (gives me motivation... uhhh.... to plan faster? -.-')


	4. Chapter 4: What is Happiness?

**OnigiriKami: **Hello! Long time since I updated this story! Sorry guys, I had a big fever and I still have it now! The medicine that I'm eating won't work and my parents says to eat more of it, but I say that it's overdose and I don't want to get an overdose or its unhealthy! -.-' sorry for the rant!

Well hope you like this chapter also.... and Happy VERY late Thanksgiving... you know what I like about Thanksgiving? The GIVING part... so GIVE me some reviews!! ... Ahahaha.... kidding!

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH!!**

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**Last Chapter...**

_Rukia stood her ground and thought for a while, "......No."_

_"What?"_

_"I said 'No'." her eyes glared at him, "I told you, you're not leaving here until your good enough to walk!" she pushed him gently, which made him fall back more than how much strength was put in, "See! Your so weak that I can even push you aside!"_

_"Either you let me out and we'll never butt into each other's lives again, or I stay and I'll make your life a living hell."_

_Her glare hardened, "I've already lived a hell before, and I can endure it again."_

_Ichigo first glared at her then he smirked with amusement, before his body loosened and he fell backwards onto the floor sleeping._

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"Oi! Oi! Rukia! Guess what?!" screamed out the joyful Renji that just barged in from the front door of the apartment. He was carrying numerous amounts of grocery bags and waving them in front of a shocked Rukia who was sitting on a small couch.

"What is it?" Rukia asked, annoyed by the loud ruckus that he was causing in the apartment. School was already over and Renji had just came from his work. Also, by his appearance, he had stopped on the way to a market.

"The market! They had this ridiculous sale today! They were selling everything so cheap, that everyone had to fight for it!" Renji said, then pointed at a small bruise on his face, "See this?! I was fighting for a can of fish from this lady!"

"Does it hurt?" Rukia asked while she came towards Renji.

"No--OWW!" Rukia's finger was poking hard at the bruise that was on his cheek.

"Yeah.... so it doesn't hurt?" Rukia said sarcastically, she then smiled at Renji and got up from the couch, "So, what did you bought?"

"Oh! Umm... a lot of things! Like shrimp, vegetables, fruits..."

"YES! We have some flour in the cabinet! Tempura* tonight!!! Do we have any meat?" Rukia asked.

"Uhh... yeah, a little."

Rukia then got the bag from Renji and marched towards a sliding door. She opened the sliding door to reveal a small kitchen. It had little cabinets on the wall, a counter, a sink, stove/oven, and a table. Stuff for a typical kitchen. Rukia rushed to one cabinet and it shown a large pack of flour.

----

After Rukia had gotten everything to make for dinner, she went on it.

* * *

_"Ne... why don't you ever smile? Aren't you ever happy?"_

_"...."_

_"Hey! Answer me!"_

_"..... What is happiness?"_

_"Hmm.... something warm?"_

The orange head had instantly woken up from his dream. He started to scratch his head, and he frowned more,  
"What the hell.... me dreaming about the past, I'm turning into an old man."

The door of the room had suddenly bang open and the petite girl came in. When she had entered, Ichigo faced away from her. When she had noticed that he was still laying there, she stomped hard on the ground, clearly indicating for Ichigo to wake up and she was carrying a tray with food on it.

"Wake up! Ichigo! Time for dinner! You haven't ate in a.... while!"

"...." Ichigo ignored her and rustled in his blanket to adjust his position to go back to sleep.

Rukia started to stomp on the ground more louder, "HEY! Get up!" Ichigo then heard the sound of clattering, he guessed that Rukia had temporarily put down her tray. Somehow, he knew this was a bad sign.

And it was.

He felt something hit him hard in the head. He slowly moved aside his blanket from his head and saw a pillow on top of him. He grabbed the pillow and threw it back at Rukia, "Is this how you treat an ill person?"

Rukia had dodged the pillow easily. Ichigo then saw Rukia going back to where she had set the tray on a small table near the door. She began slowly walking towards where Ichigo was and she sat down next to him.

"Here! I cooked this!" she said grumpily. When she set it down near Ichigo and he didn't do anything but stared at it, Rukia made a scowling face, "What? Aren't you going to eat?!"

"...." Ichigo stared at Rukia for a while for a retort, "Do I have to eat it in front of you?"

"Huh? Yes!" then she looked away from him and her cheeks colored a little, "I need to see you eating everything! Ill people needs to eat a lot to regain their health!"

"Yeah yeah.... whatever." Ichigo got his body up and gently picked up the tray. He had never felt so weak that he couldn't even hold a tray this unnaturally. He almost shook when picking it up.

On the tray were a bowl of rice, some miso soup*, and tempura. The wooden chopsticks were put neatly to the side with a napkin underneath it.

When Ichigo broke the chopsticks in half and was reaching for the tempura, he noticed Rukia staring attentively at him. He shook his head a little to ignore it and took a bite out of the shrimp. His brow furrowed more as he ate. Somehow, it usually did that.

"So... how was it?" Rukia asked cautiously.

Ichigo gave her a quick glance before replying, "It tastes horrible." Ichigo took another quick glance at her to see that she was frowning and looked like she was about to scowl him, "Ahhh.... how annoying.... it was just a joke.... it's better than I expected."

"That's strange then! Why the hell do you look so mad when you eat? Aren't people supposed to be happy when they eat something good?"

"Shut up. I'm eating."

"Hey! Can't you ever smile? Always that same constipated frown! Aren't you ever happy?" then she scooted away from him when she saw that he stopped eating and placed his chopsticks on top of his rice bowl.

Ichigo turned around to face Rukia's violet eyes. "...."

"W-What?"

".... What is happiness?"

"Hah?! I don't know!" then she glanced up and her cheeks turned red again as she remembered something. When she gave Ichigo her answer, her voice had become softer and her eyes became more gentle, "... something warm.... something that you can't get enough of-- WHAT?!"

Rukia saw Ichigo staring at her with awe. His eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly opened. When he was snapped out of his consciousness, he shook his head and averted his eyes away from her. He used his hand to cover part of his face to hide away from Rukia's eyes.

"Nothing...." then he put his hand down and picked up his chopsticks again. His eyes were now deep in thought,"Kuchiki Rukia.... that's your name, right?"

"Yeah... why?"

"Nothing, just thought I should know the name of an idiot... right, Rukia?"

"Huh?" Rukia was puzzled for a second, before she realized what Ichigo had said, "... WAIT, WHAT?!"

* * *

"A-Aniki*! We found out where the Orange Delinquent is now!!" yelled a skinny guy with a large watch strapped onto his back. He was talking to a guy with a flower patterned bandanna strapped onto his head, and a large pair of sunglasses. But what was unique about them, was that they were riding on gigantic boars!

"How did you found his location?" said the bandanna man. Juts of black hair were sticking out, and when he tilted his sunglasses, it revealed his aqua eyes with long eyelashes on the lower lid. His nose was big and his eyebrows were thick, but uneven, because the left eyebrow was cut on the edge.

"Two days ago, Aniki! There was this small black haired girl and this red head who was holding him unconscious to an apartment!" the watch guy gave a little shriek when the bandanna man grabbed his shirt.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me then?!"

"I-I was trying to find you, Aniki! Kuukaku nee-san said that you were taking Bonnie for a stroll! B-But I didn't know that you were going for a journey for two days!" he said hesitantly.

The bandanna man let go of his shirt, "Ahh! Whatever! Just lead the way!" then the man readjusted his sunglasses and gave a wide grin. He slapped his boar, which replied by squealing and getting ready to run. The watch man went on his boar and slapped it also.

"You just wait! Kurosaki Ichigo, me, Ganju-sama*, will beat you to hell!"

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**OnigiriKami: **So... how did you like this chapter?! I liked the ending where Ganju shows up! It's kind of coolish~ Well, since Ganju will come, there will be a lot of drama!! ^^

Can you guys help me! What are all the names of Ganju's crew and how do they look like? If you don't know, then allow me the permission to make up their names!

Special thanks to **BleachedAngel13**! He/She helped me out with some ideas for this chapter and coming up chapters! SO THANK YOU!!!

Sorry if this chapter was short! (random... kind of) Also sorry if it's a little weird or bad, because I just quickly skimmed through it (yeah, I'm lazy right now..)

Review! Santa would be so happy that you gave something! You might be on the good list!! ... You don't want any coal in your stockings, do you?

*Tempura: deep fried meat and vegetables

*Miso: Japanese soup that is made out of soybeans

*Aniki: big brother (I think it's like a slang)

*Ganju-sama: Ganju says his name like this, because he thinks of himself as high and mighty


	5. Chapter 5: Confused

**OnigiriKami: **Hello people... animals... aliens.... whatever you are! Sorry for the late update, since winter break was coming, my teachers crammed all these homework on me.... urrghhhh and TWO projects!! I even have a project on winter break :( but the good news is that my uncle and my COOL JAPANESE aunt is coming, and my half Korean half Japanese cousins are coming!! They have so pretty names.... Eugene and Euna.... Woohoo! I got Christmas gifts from my friends!!!

Sorry for the rant! I just couldn't help myself to rub it in... because just this last time, I want to show off my coolness~ (This is meant for you to laugh.... not me being a real cool poser)

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach!!!**

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**Last Chapter...**

_"You just wait! Kurosaki Ichigo, me, Ganju-sama*, will beat you to hell!"_

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"Hello! Kuchiki-san!"

Rukia was snapped out of her daze in the classroom and she lifted her head to see a tall light orange head. She smiled at her gently and gave the petite girl a big wave.

"Uhhh... hello....." Rukia stared hard at her, "... who are you?"

"Ahhh! That's not good! Remember me?" she said in a pouting face, "It's me, Inoue Orihime!"

"Ah! Sorry, Inoue!" she said out of realization of the girl she had met on the first day of school, "Do you need anything from me?"

"No, nothing in particular!" Orihime said, she looked down to the ground and a blush crept on her face, "I-I was wondering if you can eat with us..." Then Orihime jumped when she saw that Rukia looked questioningly at her, "W-With Tatsuki-chan and Chizuru-chan!"

"Huh? Tatsuki and Chizuru?"

"T-the girls who were with me when we first met each other!"

"Oh! Them! You mean Arisawa and Honshou? Sorry, I keep calling people by their last names that I almost forget their first names!" Rukia said apologetically. Then she smiled at Orihime and said, "Sure! At lunch!"

"Thank you, Kuchiki-san! Ah! We'll be eating in class!" Orihime said, before she went to her friends that were huddled up at her desk.

Rukia had not particularly paid attention to the things that were going around her. She kept replaying that thing that happened in her head. It was almost embarrassing that this thing would bug her so much. What bugged her was that Kurosaki Ichigo had said her first name with ease.

Well she does call him by his first name also, but out of hatred and annoyance for him. But when he had said her name, it sounded as if he wanted to be her friend, or be on good terms. _'He's so confusing! First he wanted to avoid me! Now he wants to somehow be friends?!'_ Rukia then groaned in frustration. She couldn't understand him, he was to hard to read. Rukia then leaned on her right arm, and saw through the window indolently. The autumn breeze was cold as it blew at her face and sent her chills.

"I don't get you at all."

* * *

**Lunch...**

Rukia sat on her desk with the bento that she had packed up. She waited patiently for Orihime and her friends, but when about ten minutes passed by, her belly growled and she hastily opened up her bento. It revealed octopus sausages, egg over rice, and a few side dishes. She grabbed her wooden chopsticks and broke them in half.

Rukia licked her lips greedily and reached for the rice, but before she could even touch her food, she was disruptively stopped by a girl's wailing.

"Ahh! No fair, Kuchiki-san!" Rukia rose her head up to see Orihime frowning at her. "You should wait for us, Kuchiki-san!"

"Ahahaha... sorry, I was getting kind of hungry!" Rukia said, scratching the back of her head awkwardly. "Please sit down!"

All the girls huddled up near her with chairs that they pulled out from random desks. When Rukia saw that they were all taking out their bento and was about to eat, she lifted her chopsticks again. But immediately, she but them down when she saw that the pink haired girl was staring at her intently.

Rukia became kind of nervous when the pink haired girl named 'Honshou Chizuro' blushed at her and started to giggle. "W-What? Do I have something on my face?" But then Rukia realized that the girl was looking no where near her face. As Rukia followed the girls gaze down, it landed on her chest.

"You have delicate little ones~" Chizuru said while drooling on her own bento.

As Rukia was oblivious to the comment, she took it as a positive compliment, "Ahh... why, thank you!"

"Kuchiki, isn't it?" spoke up the black haired girl who was called 'Arisawa Tatsuki', "Let me tell you something, she wasn't complimenting you in a good way. If I were you, I would stay my guard up on her."

"Uhh! Tatsuki, you gorilla! I don't want Rukia-chwan* to be tense around me!" said Chizuru, then she turned to Rukia to smile and wink at her, "Don't worry, I'm not anything bad."

"Ahahaha....." Not sure what to do, Rukia laughed at Chizuru's reply. Then she saw the Tatsuki had pushed Chizuru aside, and sat right in front of Rukia. Tatsuki made herself comfortable and slouch on the chair a little. Rukia glanced at the fallen Chizuru who was rubbing her butt.

"Hey! Get off of my seat, freaking gorilla!" Chizuru complained to Tatsuki, who was completely ignoring her and munching on her food. Then a pretty big chested lady caught Chizuru's attention and she started to drool and chase the woman.

_'Honshou... is... weird....'_ Rukia thought.

"Hey... Rukia..." Tatsuki said, chewing her food then swallowed, "Are you close with that yankee, Ichigo?"

This question had immediately caught Rukia's attention, because she was munching on some food, then she started to choke. She pounded her chest several times.

"Ah! Kuchiki-san, here's some water!" Orihime handed Rukia a bottle of water, in which Rukia took hastily.

Rukia quickly unscrewed the water bottle cap, and desperately drank some water. The water trickled down to her chin, and her gulps were loud. When she was done with nearly half of the water, Rukia inhaled a deep breathe and wiped the liquid that was dripping all over her face.

"E-Excuse me? What did you said Arisawa?" Rukia said, her voice was hoarse from the lack of air. "Me? Close to that guy?!"

"Huh? Well... on the first day that you came to this school.... you guys made a big show...." Tatsuki said, not sure anymore if she could continue with her questioning. Then she smile at Rukia, "Ahh! You know what! Forget about what I just said, okay?"

"O-Okay."

Then silence came as they ate on the desks. But the silence was completely shatter as Orihime said something.

"Ah! I remember, weren't you and Kurosaki-kun close?" Orihime directed the question to Tatsuki, who was taken by surprise.

"...." Tatsuki looked away from them, with a downcast gaze, "We used to..."

"What happened, Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime asked, concerned for her friend's sudden depression.

Tatsuki hesitated for a second, before she told Orihime and Rukia, "It was when we were kids... when we were close..." she then started laughing, "when I remember those days, I laugh at how he was so weak then!"

"Hah!? That yankee was weak?!" Rukia asked, surprised at what Tatsuki had just said.

Tatsuki stared at Rukia then nodded her head, "He was nice then too..." she paused at that, her head was lowered, that her bangs covered her eyes, "... but then, something terrible happened to him...."

"What was it?" Orihime asked shyly.

Tatsuki grabbed tufts of her hair, her shoulders went tense, but then it relaxed, and she raised her head up with a false smile at the two, "Sorry you guys! I don't think that I should talk about this.... although we drifted apart, I'm still loyal to our lost friendship!"

"Oh.... sorry." Rukia and Orihime apologized to Tatsuki.

"Ahahahaha! It's okay!" Tatsuki slapped Orihime and Rukia's shoulders then quickly glanced at the classroom clock, "Ah! Look at the time, we better eat quickly!"

* * *

Renji swung the door of the apartment open tiredly. He sighed as he dropped his bag. His shoulders were tense from holding all those trays and his legs were tired from walking around or standing about to get the orders of those rich customers. Renji was jealous of the good life, he liked how they didn't have the care in the world and how they never faced hardships before.

Renji sighed again then walked upstairs, every step made him more tired. When he reached Rukia's room, he knocked at the door, and waited for her acknowledgement of him. But when no sound was heard, Renji opened her door and saw that she wasn't in her room. Her room was neat as ever. She had a small desk at a corner, a futon with folded blankets in the middle, and what Renji's room didn't have, but Rukia had in her room was a small balcony with black railings. Rukia had said something about the girl having the master bedroom, but Renji knew that it was an excuse to get the room with the balcony.

Renji strode out of Rukia's room and then he looked into his room, seeing if there was a chance that Rukia was serving Ichigo some dinner right now. But he saw no sign of her, only Ichigo covered in bed sheets and an untouched tray of cold food.

"Tch. She goes through all the trouble to make that bastard some dinner, and he doesn't touch a bit..." Renji mumbled to himself, then closed his room. "If she's not here, the only place is...." Renji came to Rukia's room again, and entered the very tiny balcony there. There was a ladder propped up and Renji knew instantly where Rukia was. "Rukia! Are you up there again?!"

"Renji? Yeah, I'm up here..."

Renji climbed up the small ladder and cautiously tried to go up to the roof top. He then spotted his familiar friend and sat next to Rukia who looked like she was deep in thought.

"I don't understand why you like high places so much." then he started to yawn and then stared at Rukia, "What's with that face?"

"Huh? Oh... well, I heard something amazing in class..."

"What?"

"Well... I heard about Ichigo..."

"Huh?! What was it about? Did he kill someone?!" Renji asked, worry thick in his voice.

"No!" Rukia laughed at Renji's funny outburst and slapped Renji's back, then her eyes dulled, "It's about his past."

"Hmm? Are you interested in him?!" Renji asked in bewilderment out, "Your... tastes are bad..."

"Shut up, Renji! It just popped up in class!" Rukia's brows were knitted, and when she talked, her teeth clenched, ".... I heard that he had a really bad past... maybe worser than ours...." Rukia's voice became calmer and more quiet.

"Rukia..." Renji had also lowered his voice, and it became a more serious tone, "your past isn't to be compared to..... yours is far worse than mine, and I think even his!"

"Idiot." Rukia said, "How can you know that when you don't know anything about this guy? Judge him, when you know more about him." Rukia sighed, "Somehow, I feel bad for myself. I hated that guy... but now that I know that something bad might have happened to that guy... I feel sad for him...." Rukia drew her knees up and wrapped her hand around them. "I hate myself right now for sympathizing for that Ichigo... "

Renji sadly stared at his troubled friend. He wanted to cheer her up, so he thought of something for letting Rukia's anger out, "Rukia, if your angry, then do this," Renji stood up from his seat and then cupped his fingers around his mouth. He then closed his eyes shut, and opened his mouth wide to yell loud at the neighborhood.

"AAAHHHHHHHH!!"

When he was done, he was out of breathe. "Ahh! I feel better now!"

"Idiot! Renji, what if you get the neighbors mad! We might get kicked out!" Rukia scowled him.

"Come on and try it, Rukia, it brings out all the emotions that you want to let out!" Renji said, and grabbed Rukia's arm to encourage her to stand up. She stubbornly listened to him and stood up from her seat. "Okay! Now take in a deep breathe!" Rukia took in a deep breath... "Hold it! And then yell out as much as possible!" just after Renji had said that, Rukia's anger and confusion had come out in a loud scream. She screamed for a minute, until the lack of oxygen had gotten her. Her neck was a little sore, but somehow, she felt better.

"See, Rukia, it lets out all of the anger, doesn't it?" Renji said in a statement more than a question. He put his arms on his sides, and laughed triumphantly. "Hahahaha! If you listen to me, then you'll feel better!"

"So, if you ask me to do the laundry, then I'll feel better?" Rukia asked slyly.

"Uh.... Shut up! You just spoiled a moment where I was finally cool!" Renji yelled at her.

"W-What? You were not cool at all! You looked like a dad poser, who was giving advise to his daughter!" Rukia retorted back.

"What?! I did not look like an old man!"

"Heh! Did I say that you were an 'old man'?" Rukia asked calmly.

"Uh... uh... Shut up!!!"

"Same retort, ehh? Pick a better one, you big pineapple head!"

"WHY YOU! I'M NOT DUM--"

The quarrel between Rukia and Renji was disruptively stopped as a crashing noise came, and shook the whole apartment building. The two teens slowly looked at each other in questioning stares.

"W-What was that..... Rukia......?"

"I-I don't know....."

They both hastily took action, and hurriedly descended down the ladder. Went back into the apartment, down the stairs, and stopped into the living room. What astonished them was four boars in the house and men on top of them. The first one that had got both the shocked teenagers' attention was the one that stood out the most. He was a man with a flower patterned bandanna, and a sunglasses in the middle of the night, and rode a big boar with a red ribbon on it. Behind him were four other men with boars.

The first one was a blond haired one with sunglasses on just like the bandanna guy, and he also had a boar. The boar had a purple mohawk. The second guy had a huge afro, and was riding on a boar with curly blond hair. The third guy was a tall, fat, bald man with a boar that had a horn strapped onto his head. And the last man was a guy with a big watch strapped onto his back with a boar that had a patch of black hair.

"Bastards! What did you guys just do to our door?!" Renji yelled, and was pointing at a door that was broken in half. "You know how many hours I have to work now, to fix that?!"

The bandanna guy took off his sunglasses, "Where's Kurosaki Ichigo?"

"Y-Yakuza*?" Rukia stuttered disbelievingly.

"Huh?!" The bandanna guy grabbed Rukia's collar and glared into her eyes, "Did you listen to what I said?! Where is Kurosaki Ichigo!?"

"Let go of me, you freak!" Rukia protested, and was trying to get his arm off of the collar of her shirt.

"Let go of her!" Renji yelled out loud repeating what Rukia had said, "Ichigo is--"

"He's not here!" Rukia interrupted Renji. Rukia gave Renji a glare to let him know that Rukia wanted him to keep his mouth shut. She didn't want to reveal Ichigo's whereabouts. She needed to protect that idiot somehow, she didn't want anyone to get hurt. It didn't matter to her if she got hurt, she just wanted to protect everyone.

Renji gaped as he saw his friend covering for Ichigo, "But, Rukia--"

"He's not here!" Rukia interrupted again, showing no signs of regretting her words. Her voice was very firm and Renji knew to not argue with her anymore.

"Don't lie to me, Hawk told me that you and your friend brought him here to shelter when he was injured!" the bandanna man said angrily. His grip tightened on the girl, in which she responded by trying to pry his hands off and she looked like she was choking. She wriggled her body and she was on her toes now. "Stop covering for him!"

"He left the other day! He went home right after he woke up!" Rukia protested, her voice squeezed of the lack of oxygen.

"Why you!" This had not deceived the man, for he had seen through Rukia's lies. He threw her aside, left of him, violently to the wall of the living room. She was light, so she could be pushed aside and broken in half right at that moment, but she did not.

A quick flash slid on the ground. Someone had saved Rukia before the impact came hard onto her fragile body. She trembled a little before she rose her head up to see the amber eyes gazing down at her. She looked shocked and questioningly at him.

"Why....?" Rukia asked in a low whisper. She had thought that he would ignore her, because he was so violent and arrogant. But why? Was Rukia right when she thought that Ichigo really wanted to be her friend? _'No... he wouldn't have saved me for that reason....'_

"This is because I owe you one." Ichigo said, before he rose up and face the raging bandanna guy, "So, what do you want?" his voice was tired and lazy, "I don't have time to play with you, so go and run along now." he said, waving his hand to shoo them away.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, ehh?" the bandanna guy said, trying to be calm from his anger, "So your hair really is freaking orange! Heh! Are you a poser?!"

This comment made Ichigo silent. The bandanna guy took this chance by getting off of his boar and was starting to pet Ichigo's face, "Good, now be a good boy, and die! Because I, Ganju-sama, will kill you!"

Laughter filtered the living room as Ganju's crew started laughing at Ichigo to mock him. Ganju kept patting Ichigo's face, then he started to do it faster, so it was more like slapping Ichigo's face. Then Ganju started to shout out loud, when Ichigo instantly grabbed Ganju's petting hand, and squeezed it tight. It was so tight, that Ganju's knuckles started to crack.

"You're... annoying........."

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**OnigiriKami: ***Sigh* I didn't like this chapter much.... it was so confusing when I read it... and the Renji Rukia moment was corny (that moment is not related to romance at all! Only friendship!!!) And that school moment was WTH for me.... I really didn't like this chapter :( Please tell me how it was....

Ganju is really OOC in this, but it'll explain why he was acting like this later, but he's still that weird goofy Ganju I know, just that he's confused and frustrated right now! So I intentionally made him OOC in this!!

Oh! Oh! OH! Guess what?! Well me and **BleachedAngel13 **are going to make a One-Shot!! It will be published on the day of Christmas! The name is First Snow so watch out for it, it's under the account, **BleachedOnigiri**!! If you don't read it... I'll find your addresses and black mail all of you! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!... joking!

**LonelyAsura**: Thank you so much for helping me out!!! Your help is a big contribution to this story!!! Thanks for being my first reviewer and always reading my stories!!! ^^

*Yakuza: Gang of deliquents, could be a family of gangsters


	6. Chapter 6: Two Sided?

**OnigiriKami: **Hello! Sorry for the late update, my internet "broke", so it took me two weeks just to get internet again! This chapter reveals A LOT of spoilers, so read... and in your reviews you can make a few predictions... also if you already found out about Ichigo, then tell me if it was a good idea or not... because if it isn't, I'll change this chapter right away! :)

**READ AND REVIEW!**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH!**

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**Last Chapter...**

_Laughter filtered the living room as Ganju's crew started laughing at Ichigo to mock him. Ganju kept patting Ichigo's face, then he started to do it faster, so it was more like slapping Ichigo's face. Then Ganju started to shout out loud, when Ichigo instantly grabbed Ganju's petting hand, and squeezed it tight. It was so tight, that Ganju's knuckles started to crack._

_"You're... annoying..."_

* * *

Ganju writhed in pain as Ichigo held his fist in his hand tightly. He yelled out to Ichigo and even tried to pull away from him. But the one thing that he would never do was beg. He wouldn't shatter his pride for even 10,000,000,000,000 yen*.

After a few moments of pain, Ganju felt that Ichigo's grip had slightly loosened. So he quickly pulled it out of his clutches. He smiled triumphantly to the orange head that he had escaped from him. But all that had dissolved as he saw the smirk on the teens face. Ganju boiled with anger of how easily Ichigo was treating him. "Stop going easy on me!" he yelled in frustration.

But Ichigo ignored the retort, and slung his head to the side, to point at the entryway where there used to be a door. "Let's take this fight outside..."

"Why?"

"... Because I don't want blood all over the apartment." After that Ichigo went out, ignoring Ganju's curses at him. Ichigo was calming himself down. When fighting he had to think clearly. All the insults that Ganju was throwing at him was going to be paid for, because he would beat Ganju to a distorted play doe.

In the back, Ganju quickly pet his boar of reassurance to it and stared at his gang. He looked straight at Hawk, the skinny man with the big clock strapped onto his back.

"Watch out for the time, Hawk." Ganju said. He patted his shoulder too, before he walked out of the entryway leaving his crew. While he was walking out, he saw the girl before getting up and was slowly advancing to the front of the entryway. Ganju let her be, because he had finally got what he has wanted. To fight Ichigo.

The air was cold, showing the seasonal change from summer to autumn. Little bits of dead leafs rustled in the wind. And in the middle of the almost always empty streets, laid the place for their battle.

When both people reached each and of the streets opposite of where they both were and faced each other, Ichigo slowly put his hands in his pants pockets, showing how loose he was. He leaned his back on an invisible wall. While on the other side, Ganju had made a stance. They stared at each other. Ichigo's eyes were unreadable, while Ganju's showed imense anger towards him. Aqua clashed with amber.

They stood at there places for about a minute but then suddenly Ganju started to charge at Ichigo. What would be the initial response of someone charging you would be typically to run away from them, but Ichigo Kurosaki stood at his place. He was waiting for Ganju..

When Ganju reached close to Ichigo, he lunged his fist at Ichigo, but Ichigo took a side step and missed by an inch. Their eyes met contact yet again, Ganju's mad still and Ichigo's still unreadable.

Ganju slowed down from his streak and turned back to face Ichigo. He hunched down low to the cement and, as fast as he could, swinged his legs in a 180 degree. Ichigo flexed his powerful long legs and jumped high in the air to dodge Ganju's sneak attack. When his feet landed safely on the cement without tripping, he put his right leg up high and then aimed it for Ganju's unexpected head. But Ganju noticed and dodged in a second. Ganju took three steps back for distance. He was out of breathe from the shock of almost being squashed.

"Heh. So the fat man's quick." Ichigo said with slight sarcasm in his voice.

"Shut up! These are all muscles, chopsticks!" Ganju retorted back. But afterwards his eyes widened in surprise as he saw that Ichigo was slowly walking towards him. "What're you going to do with that slow speed?"

"Tch, I don't need to fight for real with a fat guy." Now Ichigo and Ganju were three feet apart from each other. "Are you going to run?"

"Heh! I don't need to run, because I can deal with you." Ganju said plainly as if it was clear that he was.

"Suit yourself, because once I'm finished with you, you're never going to talk again. I'm going to break all of your teeth, so that you can never speak with that annoying mouth of yours." Ichigo's voice became rapid, as if he was overwhelmed with happiness. Something was wrong with him that he somehow sounded differenter right now. Also what had shocked one spectator the most was that he was grinning.

"He's... actually.. smiling..." Rukia said with utter disbelief. But what had really chilled her to the bones was that it wasn't an ordinary smile. It actually looked twisted and evil, as if it was thinking of doing something cruel. "Who... is this..."

But before Rukia could even puzzle on this matter, she saw that Ichigo had punched Ganju straight on his left cheek. Ganju had no time for this quick devastating blow, as he was pushed to his right. He staggered from the hard impact. It was painful, so painful that he couldn't even feel the pain anymore. It felt like everything was pain. But he forced the pain to go away from his head as he started to massage his jaw, then he spit out some saliva that was covered in his own crimson blood. He wiped off the spit on his lips and then looked at the new Ichigo.

"I knew it..." Ganju whispered with a little laughter in his voice. The laughter was not happy at all, but fiercly angered. Then the anger started to pour inside of him fast as he shouted the words that were deep inside his chest, "I KNEW YOU DID IT! YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!"

"I don't know anything about your brother, but I know this... YOU'LL BE JOINING HIM!" Ichigo yelled out. He then started to laugh lightly at the image of Ganju's bloody body. He then walked to where Ganju was, his sadistic grin was still on his face. He was ready to kill Ganju now, and Rukia knew it.

Rukia didn't want it like this, she didn't want to see blood shedded. Rukia knew that this fight was far from oweing her. Ichigo was doing this with his own intentions. Rukia knew of only one solution for this. She was going to stop Ichigo for herself. She quickly ran towards Ichigo and blocked Ganju out of his way. "STOP!"

But Ichigo just stared at her like a speck of dust and pushed her away, making her hit the road with her body. She got up quickly and saw that Ichigo was already reaching for Ganju and saw that he was numerously beating Ganju in the face. This man before her was not Ichigo... he was a monster. He kept bashing at Ganju's face in which Ganju kept screaming out in pain. Ichigo kept punching till Ganju was unconscious, but that did not stop him, he kept beating Ganju's face with unknown hatred. The blood splatter out each time he punched Ganju, making it stain the street, and it sickened Rukia. It sickened her so much that she felt helpless for not being able to stop this. She was a failure, she was going to let another person die again. Like all of her friends and _him. _Then she felt it, the wet droplets that were streaming down from her eyes. Tears of frustruation of not doing anything to stop this. "This... this wasn't supposed to happen!"

_"THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!"_

Ichigo stopped dead in his punches. His head slowly turned to Rukia. He stared at her with the most deepest sadness that it surprised Rukia. She was so much like_ her._ Her personality, her attitude was reminding him of _her._ But he didn't want to remember _her._ To many thoughts of horrible things filled his mind if he remembered _her._ Ichigo let go of the collar of Ganju's shirt that he was holding up, and turned away from Rukia also. He then started to walk out of sight. He knew that he had scared her. It was because of this thing that he couldn't control, the side that rages for the satisfaction of inflicting others pain.

"Where are you going!" the voice was high-pitched and it sounded bewildered at his leaving.

Ichigo stopped where he stood, and without turning, said, "Don't ever get involved with me."

"WAIT!" Rukia yelled. All the confusion was overwhelming her. She had just seen two sides of Ichigo. "WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON? WHO WAS THAT?"

But this time Ichigo didn't answer her. He started to walk again, and more than anything, away from her. Rukia stared at his back until he turned a corner and disappeared.

"What the hell happened?" said a voice behind of Rukia. She slowly turned her head towards Renji with her face blank. Renji ran up to her and checked her everywhere to see if she had any injuries. Then he suddenly grabbed her face and looked at her in surprise, "Were you crying?"

Rukia sniffed, then wiped off the remaining tears on her face, "No."

"Don't lie! I saw all those tears all over your face! You think I'm stupid?"

"Renji..." Rukia's voice was quiet with much seriousness to it. "Call an ambullance for that guy." Rukia pointed at the bloody faced body.

Renji's eyes widened for a second at the body then glanced at Rukia. He wasn't going to pester her with anymore questions now. She was clearly tired and Renji was considerate of Rukia. He knew that she had seen something horrible, and if it had scared Rukia, then he wouldn't want to know about it.

* * *

"I knew you'd be here, Kurosaki." said the familiar teen with square rimmed glasses, and bluish black hair. He wore a neat collared shirt and stared at the boy that was laying on the grassy slope. The slope has a small river flowing water slowly downstreamand in the middle of the field were rocks piled into a small tower. Ichigo was laying down and looking at the river with something in his eyes. He used both of his arms as a pillow.

Ishida walked towards Ichigo and sat at his right side. "Isn't this the place where she was buried?" Ishida asked quietly. He said it with such casualty that it sounded like the topic didn't really bothered Ichigo much.

"Yeah..." Ichigo whispered back, not taking his eyes off of the river. "This is where Oka-san* was buried... it was her favorite place..."

"Whenever you're in a bad mood or stressed, you usually lay here and look at the scenery like an old man."

"How did you know that I was going to come here." Ichigo said, ignoring Ishida's comment.

"Because you come here most of the time. So I kept coming here each day until today, when I found you here on the grass." Ishida said, "Where were you these past two days?"

"..." It took time for Ichigo to answer Ishida, "You don't need to know where I was."

"Well whatever, I won't pester you, because I know that you won't budge." Ishida said, exhaling a tired breathe.

"Hey, can you stitch me up later, I got another cut."

"Again? You really should stop fighting, it's a bother to me." Ishida said with a rather frustruated tone.

"It's the only way to take out my stress." Ichigo said with an unusually hoarse voice. On the outside he looked calm, making himself a front to shelter in... but in the inside, he was actually extremely emotionally unstable.

"You sound tired... let's go back and stitch you up." Ishida said, getting up, and going on ahead.

A few seconds past by before Ichigo got up and followed Ishida.

_'Forget about me, Kuchiki Rukia...'_

* * *

**OnigiriKami: **Again, sorry for the late update! OOH! I also updated on TGUTT! YAY! Sorry for it's weird shortness! Well what'll happen next? What the hell was that Ichigo going physco scene? Tune in next time to find out more!

*10,000,000,000,000 YEN: APPROXIAMATELY 100,000,000,000 U.S. DOLLARS

*OKA-SAN: MOM/MOTHER

**REVIEW!**

**(maybe ten... yes I said ten... I'm a demanding person! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)**


	7. Chapter 7: Seat Swap

**OnigiriKami: **OMG! You guys gave me so much reviews in a short amount of time!! And I thought that the response in the last chapter would have been negative.... Well here's chapter seven!! It's a little boring... but a little interesting at the same time....

**READ AND REVIEW!!!**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH!!!**

* * *

**Last Chapter...**

'Forget about me, Kuchiki Rukia...'

* * *

"ACHOO!" Rukia woke up with a sneeze. Her hair was messy and her eyes were swollen from the lack of sleep. She was kept awake by what had happened the other day.

_'That Ichigo... what the heck happened yesterday...?'_

The image of yesterday replayed in her mind, and it made her shiver as she was reminded of his cold eyes. He had beaten up Ganju and did not stop even though he was already unconscious. The only thing that stopped him, was when Rukia began to cry right in front of him. He had suddenly halted in his punches and gave her a sad look. Somehow, deep in Rukia's chest, she could feel defeat and humiliation for crying. She felt regret and stupid...

Ichigo was stupid. How could she avoid him and ignore him, when she sat right next to Ichigo?! Was he that rushed to tell Rukia this, that he could not think through the scenario?

_'I wonder what'll happen at school....'_

Rukia lifted herself off of her futon, went out of her room, and walked into the bathroom in the hallway. She stared at her own reflection in the mirror and made a face that meant that she thought that she looked horrible today. She got her toothbrush and toothpaste, and started to brush her teeth. When she was done, she took a quick shower, dried herself, then changed into her school uniform. She wore the autumn season uniform, because it was getting colder by the day. It was a thicker grey blazer and a grey skirt. She tied on the red ribbon tightly, with the golden holder placed in the middle. Rukia got a hair drier and started to dry her hair, then she got the hair brush to fix her hair.

"ACHOO!" Rukia sneezed again. She sniffed her nose, and said to herself, "Must've gotten a cold from yesterday...." She ran down stairs and saw that Renji was eating his breakfast rapidly. She could tell that he was hungry, and Rukia knew that he was a big eater. Rukia came into the very small kitchen, where the dining table was. She saw that Renji had made her some food.

"Eggs." Rukia said, then pulled her chair and sat down to eat.

"Rukia.... what are you going to do know...." Renji gulped his food, "with that guy?"

"...." Rukia could feel her head heating up and she could barely catch the words that Renji was asking her. "I don't know...." Rukia said slowly and uncertainly.

"Rukia... are you all right?"

"I'm fine-" Rukia was interrupted by the fit of coughs she was having, "-just a little cold..."

"Okay... if you say so....." Renji said in hesitation and worry.

* * *

Rukia sat in her seat with boredom etched on her face. She stared at the desk diagonal of her on the left. It was empty. It felt strange that nobody cared that Ichigo was missing for two days. Did these people really hated Ichigo that much.

No...

They feared him.

_'Ichigo'll be absent today also... the third day...' _Rukia thought with certainty.

"Hey, Rukia." called out Tatsuki. She walked towards Rukia and grabbed a chair next to her. "Yo." Tatsuki said boyishly. The tomboy gave Rukia a smile then slouched in her chair, and opening her legs unladylike. The girl didn't gave a care about other's opinion and she was strong. Rukia liked this trait about her.

"Oh, hi Arisawa." Rukia greeted back. She then saw Tatsuki leaning in her face and looked carefully at her.

"You look pale, Rukia.... are you sick?"

"No... no... I'm fine...." Rukia gave Tatsuki a reassuring smile, then she changed the subject. Her curiosity was overwhelming her. "Say... is it okay if I ask you about Ichigo again?"

"Ooooh! Speaking to him so familiarly!" Tatsuki teased Rukia then started nudging her elbow at her.

"No! That's not it... please be more serious Arisawa!"

Tatsuki's facial expression had slowly changed to a more serious one, "... what is it about...?"

"I-I know that you already said that you wouldn't betray Ichigo.... but I need to know about his past...." Rukia said. her voice was hesitated by how she was unsure of Tatsuki's reaction.

"...." Tatsuki gave a look at Rukia, before she sighed and made an expression of defeat, "Fine...."

_'T-That easy to budge her.... she must have kept this for a long time....'_

"Ichigo... had two traumatic events in his life..." Tatsuki said in a whisper so that the crowds of people wouldn't hear her, "One... his mother died...." Tatsuki saw the look of shock in Rukia's face, "and... second..."

Tatsuki was cut off when the class door slid open loud enough for everyone to hear. At the door was Kurosaki Ichigo and the blue haired man with rectangular glasses that Rukia could not remember his name. Ichigo made no emotions on his face and he had his hands in his pocket. He made no eye contact with anyone, especially Rukia.

_'I-I thought he wasn't going to come!'_

Rukia turned to see that everyone's faces had shown immense fear for the teen, and Rukia frowned at them all. She didn't like how they were treating Ichigo like some kind of unknown disease. But Ichigo looked like he didn't even mind.

Ichigo walked and passed Rukia, not even glancing at her. He even passed his own seat. When he came to the back corner of the room right next to the window, and very far away from where Rukia was, he stopped. He stood in front of a shaking boy who looked very weak and was looking down at his seat. Ichigo stared down at the boy and then all the students went silent. Rukia tried to suppress her coughs.

Then suddenly, everyone flinched from there seats, including Rukia, when they heard an unexpected slam. Ichigo had kicked the desk of the weak looking boy and stared at him straight in the eyes.

"We're switching seats, got it?" Ichigo said, his voice had no sign of aggression, only calmness, as if he knew the outcome of what would happen next.

"Y-Yes!!" said the boy as he quickly got out of the seat and went to Ichigo's old desk. He sat their trembling for a while and was staring down in embarrassment. The boy thought everyone was looking at him so his face started to slowly turn red and he was sweating. But the classmates was not looking at him at all. Their eyes were glued on Ichigo as he took one of his hands out of his pocket and pulled the chair out. He sat and then motioned the glasses guy to come over with his hand. He gave the guy next to his desk a look meaning for him to get lost, so the person fled and switched seats with the glasses guy. The bluish haired guy slowly walked in the aisles of desks and sat next to the delinquent.

_'Tch! Ichigo planned this well!'_

When they sat there, and was talking about something... almost like mocking each other, the crowd of students started to slowly talk again. Rukia immediately let go of her breath and started to cough. Then after she was done and regained her breathe, she turned to the shivering boy next to her and said, "What's your name?"

"Y-Yamada... H-Hanatarou..." Hanatarou whispered at Rukia shyly. He had bluish-black hair that went down to his chin and had weary blue eyes.

"Hanatarou... I like it... like Hana*" Rukia said, "Can I call you Hana?" Rukia saw that Hanatarou nodded his head quickly and his cheeks turned a little pink from talking to someone. "Are you okay, Hana?"

"Y-Yes... just a little shaken... that's all, Kuchiki-san." he said with his squeaky voice.

"Huh? How do you know my name?" Rukia asked in bewilderment.

"E-Everyone knows your name... because Ochi-sensei introduced you... and on the first day you came here.... you made that big scene...." Hanatarou then looked admiringly at Rukia, "From that moment, I have admired you!! You could stick up to Kurosaki-san!!"

_'I-I have a fan?'_

"Everyone admires you, they all want to be just like you, Kuchiki-san!" Hanatarou kept babbling, his eyes burning with passion. "We even made a fan club of you in the internet!"

_'T-This is going way to far.....'_

"H-Hana! You can stop now, I get it." Rukia said. She saw that Hanatarou stared at her with a smile and laughed.

"Hahahaha.... sorry, I didn't mean to go so far... but we really do admire you!"

"Well you shouldn't! You guys don't know anything about me!" Rukia said, as she snapped. Nobody should admire her. After all, she let _him _die.... nobody should......

She saw that Hanatarou looked surprised then he gazed down at his desk in sadness, "I'm sorry... Kuchiki-san... I'm sorry if I did something wrong...."

"No, you didn't do anything wrong, Hana.... I'm just not feeling very well today... sorry...." Rukia apologized, she was ashamed of making Hanatarou feel so down, then she smiled and reached her hand out for Hanatarou, "Let's be friends, okay?"

Hanatarou looked up from his desk and was startled, then he suddenly looked like he was about to cry. "Th-This... is my first time having a friend!!" he said with little tears in his eyes. He quickly wiped them and then reached out to grab Rukia's hand and shook it lightly.

"Hey?! What about me?!" The two people that had just become friends looked to their right to see Tatsuki pointing at herself and made a pouting expression. "Let's be friends too, Hana!"

Hanatarou started to cry again, then he nodded his head.

The sliding door opened a second time to reveal the long black haired teacher with glasses. She spun in the classroom all the way to the podium. Her hands clutched the clipboard and when she reached the podium, she slammed it on top of it. "Homeroom has begun, back to your seats!" Ochi-sensei said excitedly.

Everyone rushed to their original seats, except for the four that had swapped. Before Tatsuki left towards her seat she said to Rukia, "I'll talk to you about _that_ later, okay Rukia?" Tatsuki saw that Rukia had nodded, and then she quickly went to her own original desk.

_'Damn... when I was finally about to know what happened to Ichigo!'_

Rukia then turned her head behind her, while the teacher was calling attendance. She saw Ichigo with his right hand supported his head and covering his mouth. And Rukia was surprised that he was staring at her with his amber eyes, but as soon as they met each other's eyes, he slowly averted his eyes from Rukia to look out the window.

_'In those eyes... what was he thinking just now....'_

_

* * *

_

"Ganju!!" said a woman with a white beanie on her head. Her black tufts of hair was sticking out of the beanie and she wore a red T-shirt and green cargo pants. Her aqua eyes looked mad at a bandaged up patient in a chair. "You idiot! How did you got yourself into this mess?!"

The woman's words were harsh, but she only did that to cover up her immense concern for Ganju.

"Nee-san... I got battered up... because...." Ganju said, his confession sounded hard to say. "OOF!" Ganju yelled in pain, when he felt his own older sister kicking him in the stomach.

"Spit it out!"

"I.... I found Aniki's killer..."

Kuukaku looked startled, then her eyes showed sympathy for her younger brother.

".... Ganju... I said to forget about him...." Kuukaku said, her voice was no longer furious.

"Nee-san... when will I be out of the hospital....?" Ganju whispered, ignoring Kuukaku's words. His eyes looked faraway as if he had made up his mind on something, "I'm going to Karakura High.... OOF!" Ganju had gotten another kick from his sister at the same spot. She kept batting him.

"All of the sudden you're going to school again! Don't think that I'm not suspicious! Forget about that vagabond! He left us!!! He's nothing to us anymore! He gave us nothing but his dead body!!!" Kuukaku said, her voice trembled as she said each insult to her older dead brother. She was also hurt. "I told you, no more revenge!"

"NEE-SAN!" Ganju yelled at her. Kuukaku stopped her kicking and was shocked at Ganju standing up to her, "If someone precious to you died... you feel so much hatred for the man who killed the one precious to you..." Ganju's hands clenched and shook violently to control his anger, "...wouldn't you want to kill the killer!"

Kuukaku's knees started to shake as she saw Ganju's fierce aqua eyes. She slumped to the light blue tiled floor as her eyes widened at the truth. She didn't want to feel like this. Her brother would have never let them be like this.

She wanted the murderer of her brother dead also.....

* * *

**OngiriKami: **Yes, I have involved Hanatarou, but he makes a very little role in the story and this might be probably the last time he gets a long conversation, in the other chapter's he might only say, "Hi." He's just a character in the story that I put in to replace Ichigo's seat. This chapter is making you all very puzzled right?!

I changed Kuukaku's wrappings to something more modern, and I made her have both her arms, I don't own the character, but I think that if she had two of her arms, it'll be easier to write her actions! Also I replaced her clothes on her head to a beanie, because it'll be weird if she had a cloth on her forehead if this is an AU story...

*Hana: Flower

Okay, I have my finals coming up so I'll make you guys very slow, and the chapters to be difficult to speed:

**20 MORE REVIEWS!! (yes, I'm trying to slow you guys down.... ) That means it'll be a TOTAL of 73 reviews (I'm trying to not let you all lose track...)**

If I made any errors, then tell me, I was kinda rushing this chapter... I need to update my other stories and then study!!!!

* * *

_PREVIEW:_

_Rukia faints in PE...._

_An ORANGE head takes her to the infirmary......_

_and..._

_kiss....._

**STAY TUNED!! :)**


	8. Chapter 8: In the Infirmary

**OnigiriKami: **Hello reviewers! I have come back with your eager to wait chapter 8! This chapter will contain a lot of spoilers and as promised... a kissing scene :\\\) But I was a bit depressed how it took so long for 73 reviews... it's okay though! MWAHAHAHA! I still have your hearts in this story!

I have a puppy! YES! FINALLY! I've been begging for a puppy ever since I was in elementary... yeah I feel like a kid... -.-'

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach**

**READ AND REVIEW... OR DIE! MWAHAHAHAHA!**

**... Joking... or maybe not... O.O**

* * *

**Last Chapter...**

'Damn... when I was finally about to know what happened to Ichigo!'

_Rukia then turned her head behind her, while the teacher was calling attendance. She saw Ichigo with his right hand supported his head and covering his mouth. And Rukia was surprised that he was staring at her with his amber eyes, but as soon as they met each others eyes, he slowly averted his eyes from Rukia to look out the window._

'In those eyes... what was he thinking just now...'

* * *

Rukia sluggishly walked to her house. She popped the key into the keyhole and turned it. Then she leaned on the door and pushed it as hard as she could.

Yesterday, on the same night that Ganju and Ichigo had fought, Renji had called someone to repair the front door. At that time, Rukia was asleep and was having a slight cold. But now, her health was getting worse.

Rukia dragged her feet up the stairs and placed her hands on the walls to support her. She slipped half way, then she got up again. She felt dead. She couldn't think, hear, or see. She just wanted to go to sleep. If she slept then the pain would go away for a while. Rukia dizzily came in sight of her room, and when she reached there, she was already panting. She went towards her futon and then fell in carelessly. She was already in her pajamas and she wrapped the blanket around her.

"It hurts..." Rukia whispered to herself. Her head was hurting and everywhere on her body was aching. "How am... I going to school... like... this..." after those few words, she slowly drifted to sleep...

_The small ten year old girl with a yellow dirty shirt and a pair of blue trousers, Rukia, ran through the alleyways of Inuzuri: The worse city in Japan. She ran together with a red head who had a white smudged tank top and ripped trousers, who was putting all his strength into running._

_"Hahaha! You can't beat me, Renji!" Rukia said, her arms swaying back and forth._

_"Shut up! Girls can't beat guys!" Renji said and then built up his speed. But that was a big mistake, because afterwards he lost his stride from the lack of air. He saw Rukia passing him with ease. She was looking directly at him and stuck her tongue out at him, "Bleh! You loser!"_

_Then Renji saw where Rukia was heading, "Rukia, you idiot, watch out!"_

_"Huh?" Rukia turned around just to crash into a man sitting on a pile of trash cans. He had a black hood on, covering his eyes and a singly cigarette in his mouth, but it wasn't lit yet. He had his hands in his pockets and he was just looking up at the polluted sky._

_The man wore a black jacket and a pair of grey skinny jeans. He had a metal chain coming out of the pocket of the jeans. And a red shirt popped out of his black jacket. His cheeks looked pale, with short stubs of black coming out of it. He clearly didn't take care of himself well._

_"S-Sorry..." Rukia said with hesitation._

_"Yeah, next time don't do that, kid." The man said, his cigarette moving up and down as his lips moved. This reply that the man had made angered Rukia. He had said it in a cocky way and wasn't paying much attention to her. So she looked around him to see any retort that she could make. Then she eyed his cigarette._

_"You shouldn't smoke, you'll just get stupid!" Rukia said, then stretched one of her bottom eye lid and stuck out her tongue._

_"Shut up. It's okay to just taste it, right?" The man then turned his head slowly around to face her..._

"OI! RUKIA?"

Rukia's eyes instantly snapped open. She looked around to see a hand place on her forehead. It was cold and it felt good on her hot forehead. Then she searched for the owner of this hand. She met the face of Renji. Rukia asked hoarsely "Renji...?"

"Are you okay? Rukia?" Renji asked worriedly. He shook her to make her not fall asleep and answer him. "Your eyes are so red!"

"I'm fine... Renji..." Rukia said, her eyes slowly started to close. Put then, they instantly opened when Renji shook her again. This time Rukia was annoyed, "What do you want...?"

"Rukia, stay awake while I make you something!" Renji said. Then he went out of her room and ran downstairs.

"Waking me up... and it was a nice dream..." Rukia said, then moved around to find the right position to sleep again.

"Rukia..." Renji said, shaking her. He was shaking her with one hand, and the other hand was holding a tray of hot, steaming rice gruel*. The spoon was on the side, and a plate of soy sauce was there also. "Rukia!" Renji said, shaking Rukia again, after she wouldn't wake up. Then Renji saw Rukia's body slowly getting up. She sat down and looked around like she didn't know where she was. "Oi, Rukia, I made some gruel. You want some soy sauce in it?" When Renji saw Rukia nodding her head, he poured in the soy sauce and got the spoon, then started to rapidly mix the soup. Then he scooped a chunk of rice covered in soy sauce and vegetables. "Open your mouth." He then popped the spoon into Rukia's mouth when she had obeyed his command. He saw her chew slowly then swallowed.

"That's it, here, another one." Renji said, scooping up another spoonful and putting it up to Rukia's mouth. She opened it slightly, and it gave Renji quo to put in the spoon in her mouth. Again, she chewed slowly.

After ten minutes of feeding, they were at half the bowl. When Rukia was sick, she ate slower than usual and she couldn't think properly, also she ate less than usual. "Wait a minute." Renji said. He put down the tray of food, then ran out of the room again. He went into the bathroom, found a small cloth, then soaked it with cold water. When it was thoroughly damped, he then squirted out the water. He then ran back to Rukia's room and sat next to her. Renji held the cloth gently, then folded it neatly into a long rectangle. Afterwards, he placed it on top of Rukia's forehead.

When placing the wet cloth, Renji saw Rukia flinching a little. She was surprised by the cold of the cloth on her own forehead. "Hey, Rukia, when you feel that the cloth is getting warmer, then flip the sides, okay?" Renji asked. Then he saw Rukia slowly nodding her forehead, and then drifted to sleep.

Renji made sure that Rukia was fully asleep, then he exited Rukia's room, closing the door, and sighed. He leaned his back on the door, and slowly slid down. "I hope you feel better in the morning..." Renji said, then sighed again.

* * *

Rukia woke up to a parched throat. She turned her head around the place, to see her clock. She saw the time with a blank expression, then her eyes got wider. She then jumped out of her blanket when she saw the time.

She didn't have much time to get ready.

"REEEENNNNJJJJJJJIIIIIIIII!" Rukia shouted angrily. She then heard loud footsteps approaching. The door of Rukia's room slammed open immediately, and then a pineapple head had came in. He was breathless and he had a worried look on his face.

"Wh-what is it, Rukia?" Renji asked.

"Why didn't you wake me up!" Rukia shouted, then came up to Renji. She went on her toes and met his eyes in the same height.

"You're sick!" Renji shouted back, "Do you want it to get worse?"

"Shut up! I can take care of myself! And I'm not weak!" Rukia said, then she grabbed a pillow and threw it at Renji's face. "Out! I need to get ready!" Rukia pushed Renji out of her room, and then slammed the door right near Renji's face.

"YOU CRAZY! You could've broken my nose!" Renji said behind the door. He then heard Rukia making raspberries with her mouth.

"Get lost!" Rukia retorted. Then she walked to her closet. But before she reached it, she saw a tray of rice gruel. She stared at it for a few seconds before realization hit her. Her gaze softened at the bowl. She still stared at it while shouting, "RENJI!"

"What do you want now?" Renji said behind the door.

"Thank you." Rukia said gently.

Renji looked at the door like he could see through it and saw Rukia. His eyes narrowed and his voice became softer:

"Your welcome."

* * *

"G-G-G-G-Good morning, Kuchiki-san!" Hanatarou said. He still had his weary looking blue eyes, but he had a small smile on his face. His cheeks were red from talking to someone again and his shoulders tensed from nervousness.

"Oh! Good morning Hana." Rukia said, then she pulled out her chair and took her seat. She placed her bag to the side, and she slumped onto the chair. She was still sick, and she felt horrible. She could still feel her head heating up and she felt slightly sleepy.

"Are you alright... K-Kuchiki-san?" Hanatarou asked worriedly to his 'idol'.

"I'm okay... I think I still have a bit of a cold..."

"Th-Tha-That's horrible! You should stay home!" Hanatarou said, then turned away, his face was red again.

"It's fine, even though I'm sick, I have to go to school! I'm still alive! I'm strong as ever!-" Rukia was broken of with a fit of coughs, "R-really... I'm fine!" she said out of breath. She then saw Hanatarou giving her a cautious look, then made a fake smile.

"Y-You're right!"

_'And another reason I came to school today was to speak with Arisawa...'_

Rukia smiled back at him, then she searched the classroom. "... Where's Arisawa...?"

"I think she's sick, Kuchiki-san." said a new voice. Rukia turned her head around to see that it was Orihime.

"How do you know that?" Rukia asked Orihime.

Orihime put her index finger to her mouth and glanced up like she was trying to remember, "Uhmm... she called me and said to tell the teacher that she was sick..."

_'Great... Arisawa caught the cold from me!'_

"Thanks Inoue..." Rukia said. She then saw that Orihime wasn't paying any attention to her. Orihime was looking around the classroom with a blush across her face. She was searching for someone in the classroom.

"Ara... Ishida-kun isn't here..." Orihime said as if she didn't want anyone to hear. But then Rukia caught those words, so she turned around to the back of the classroom where the orange head and Uryuu sat at. Rukia saw that the two seats that were supposed to be occupied by them were empty. Rukia then turned around to see the class clock.

_'School's going to start soon...'_

Rukia faced Orihime again, who was still staring at the empty desks. She had a worried expression on and Rukia knew why.

_'Heh... Inoue has a crush on Ishida...' _Rukia smirked at this thought, then she balled her fist and raised it below her chin. She then looked up at the ceiling like she had done something proud, _'My womanly instincts are finally telling me something!' _Then she looked back at Orihime. She slammed a hand on Orihime's shoulder and gave her a hard stare.

"I'll support you." Rukia said. She gave Orihime a big grin and she gave her a thumbs up.

"H-Huh?"

* * *

In a dark alleyway came screams of pain and a maniac laughter. It was so pitch black that the figure were almost invisible. The only thing that had light was the part where the sun could touch.

Most of the figured in the darkness were thrashing and moving away from something. One man was laughing while coming closer to them slowly. He got a leg up and hit the people at their cheeks and instantly blood spurted out of their mouths, the crimson liquid staining the sidewalk.

After a few minutes of dead silence, someone's foot came out of the shadows to meet the sunlight. Then the whole entire body came out. The orange head had blood all over his cheeks and he had a stain of it on his own white shirt. His amber eyes bore no emotions and his face was blank and calm.

"Kurosaki, you should wash your face off." Ishida said, he threw a grey jacket at Ichigo and Ichigo caught it with one hand, "And hide that stain, or else people might get to suspicious."

"Shut up." Ichigo said. He grabbed Ishida's tie and then put it at his face to wipe the blood.

"HEY!" Ishida yelled out, he had lost his composure.

"It's not a big deal, just take off the tie." Ichigo said. He put on his grey blazer and zipped it all the way to hide the blood of his victim.

"Oi, you didn't kill these two, right?" Ishida asked plainly and staring at the two limp bodies, as if it wasn't a big deal. Then Ishida glanced at his wristwatch and showed surprise, "Shit! Kurosaki, we're going to be late!" Ishida yelled at Ichigo then started running, leaving Ichigo behind.

"Tch."

* * *

"Your late again, Kurosaki... Uryuu." said Ochi-sensei, "Kurosaki's excused... well... you know he's a yankee and all... but you..." Ochi-sensei pointed at Ishida and glared at him, "Uryuu, you've been tardier lately! You are not excuse!" Then in the class, there were a couple of chuckles and giggles. When Ishida heard them, he glared at the crowd, which immediately stopped laughing.

"Sorry sensei... it won't happen again..." Ishida said solemnly to his teacher and then bowed at her. He then walked to his desk with Ichigo at his side. Ichigo walked slowly with his hands in his pocket, he just looked straight ahead. But he knew that someone was staring at him. But he shook it off and ignored the person. He didn't want to meet that person's gaze no matter what. He just didn't want too.

Ichigo then heard a grunt next to him.

"Why do you always get away with everything?" Ishida whispered.

"Don't know."

When they reached their desks, they pulled out their chairs simultaneously and sat down at the same time. Ichigo slumped in his seat and spread his legs out to make himself comfortable.

"What's next period going to be?"

"Calculus..." Ishida muttered.

"Next."

"Physical Education." Ishida said, then he slid the bridge of his glasses up more so that it wouldn't slip.

"Nerd."

"SHUT UP!" Ishida shouted, he had immediately gotten up and slammed his desk with his hands. He then looked around him with pink blush forming on his cheeks. "S-Sorry..." Ishida then sat back in his seat, he turned at Ichigo and hissed, "Damn you, Kurosaki!"

Ichigo ignored the curse that Ishida was making. He then heard the bell ringing, showing the signal that homeroom was over. Ochi-sensei was walking out of the door and waved at them. She had her clipboard to the side and smiled.

"Well see ya tomorrow class!"

Then she slammed the door hard. Right after she left, the class immediately started to chat with each other. They were loud and many voices talked at the same time with high pitched voice to low and dense voices. The students were going to talk until the first period teacher came in.

* * *

"Ahh... so boring without Arisawa..." Rukia said sluggishly. Her face was beet red and her eyes looked drowsy, "Maybe I should have stayed home..." she whispered to herself as she jogged around the school track. The pale sand kicked back at her and she wore the mandatory uniform. Red and white sweater and all red sweat pants.

She saw that most of the people were lagging behind her and she saw the orange head walking in a very slow pace. He had is hands in his blue and white sweat jacket and he was just looking at the gray cold sky. While doing that, he was listening to Uryuu, who looked like he was complaining to him.

Rukia bore her eyes at him. She didn't know why, but she had this weird habit of glaring at him. Just from a few encounters with him, she already hated him... but after that incident and the rumors of his bad past, she didn't know if she hated him or not anymore. She kind of sympathized with him.

"Huh?" Rukia said, startled. She turned her head away from Ichigo when they had made a few seconds of eye contact. "H-He saw me..." Rukia said. She felt her face turning red and she started to run faster to avoid him from coming closer.

_'I bet I looked like a stalker!'_

As she ran in the autumn air, she breathed in the chill of the wind, and her forehead started to hurt from the cold it was receiving. Her forehead was plastered with sweat and the wind against it made it freezing which made her head throb with pain. And before she realized it her surroundings became a haze. Her panting grew louder and her pace slowed down.

Rukia could feel her eye lids drooping down and everything around her started to fade away. She felt herself tipping over, but she didn't care, she felt to weak to even move...

_THUD!_

"K-Kuchiki?" said the teacher in alarm. He blew in his whistle to stop everyone, so that they wouldn't run over her unconscious body, and they did stop. He ran towards Rukia and started to shake her awake. But she wouldn't arouse from her sleep. Then the teacher quickly looked around with a panic-stricken face, "Oi? Someone take her to the infirmary!"

There was a silence as people started to crowd around the unconscious girl. Their faces showed concern for Rukia. Then a bunch of the crowd started making a passageway when they felt someone pushing against them. They looked at who was pushing against the crowd and all of a sudden, people started to gasp and whisper with each other.

"I-It's him..."

"H-He surprised me... I never in my life thought that he would help someone..."

"The infamous Orange Delinquent..."

"K-Kurosaki?" said the teacher in bewilderment, "You know this girl?" the teacher saw Ichigo respond with a slow nod of his head, then the teacher nodded back at Ichigo with hesitant eyes, "Okay... take Kuchiki to the infirmary..."

With those words, Ichigo carried Rukia with one arm under her legs and one arm holding the back of her neck. Her head fell near his shoulder and rested there.

All the people around them started gossiping, but Ichigo showed no signs of anger. His face was a hard to read poker face, as usual.

"Isn't that... the transfer student who stood up to Kurosaki...?"

"Kurosaki..." Uryuu uttered. His eyes were full of shock and his mouth dropped open.

* * *

_'Why did I help her...?'_ Ichigo thought to himself. His scowl deepened, _'Didn't I already told myself to not get her involved with me...?" _He glanced down at the sleeping Rukia, her cheeks were red, her forehead was sweating like crazy, and her brows were knotted together showing the sign of her pain.

Ichigo then rose his head up to meet the front of the infirmary. On the vanilla sliding door, there was a piece of paper attached to it. On the paper, there was a messy scribble that read:

_Break._

_Will be back in twenty minutes._

_-Nurse_

"Damn that nurse..." Ichigo irritatedly cursed. Then in frustration, he ripped off the note and crumpled it up with one hand. He then carefully tried to open the door with his left hand to not fall Rukia's head down. He succeeded. He entered in the infirmary and saw many beds with plain white blankets. The white drapes separated the patients, and at a corner, there was the nurse's desk with all her utensils. Right above the nurse's desk was cabinets where the medicine were stored.

Ichigo walked towards a bed that was nearest to them and place Rukia gently on the bed. He then got the thin blanket and covered Rukia up. But then she had immediately rejected them. Then she pulled the blankets up again. She kept repeating this for a few times.

"Oi..." Ichigo said, then he raised a hand up to her forehead. She didn't feel hot at all... rather, she felt cold. She felt almost dead and her skin became as pale as snow. Ichigo then tried to shake her, "OI! Wake up, you need medication!" when she didn't wake up, he cursed under his breathe. "Shit!" He then acted quick and found a spoon and rummaged through the cabinets and found the medicine he needed for a high fever. He looked around the nurse's desk and found a thermometer.

He ran back to Rukia and placed the thermometer carefully in Rukia's mouth, placing it underneath the tongue. He started looking at the clock to see when five minutes had passed by.

When exactly that amount of time passed by, Ichigo quickly grabbed the thermometer:

103 degrees Fahrenheit/42.8 degrees Celsius

"Damn it..." Ichigo said, then threw away the thermometer. He screwed open the bottled liquid and poured it in the spoon. He reached for her mouth and tried to feed her the medicine, but it only dripped off of her face, and none went in her mouth.

In frustration, Ichigo slammed the spoon onto the ground and started to curse, "What the hell am I supposed to do?" Then Ichigo's eyes caught something. There was a poster that showed how to do CPR, and the mouth to mouth part stood out the most to Ichigo.

He knew what to do now.

Ichigo directly brought the bottle to his mouth, and didn't swallow it. He put his hands on both edges of the bed that Rukia was in. He slowly brought his head down and his lips were a few centimeters from her slightly opened ones. He could feel her breathe as he came closer to her lips. His face was calm as usual, showing no sight of embarrassment. It was almost like it was normal. He then pressed his lips against hers and opened his own mouth. Then he felt the liquid passing to Rukia's mouth, and he felt some of the bitter medicine slowly pouring down his chin and some were on Rukia's. He used his tongue to help the medication to get more into her mouth. He felt his tongue accidentally touching hers, but he showed no reaction.

_'It's not like this is really a kiss...'_

Ichigo then stiffened when he saw Rukia's eyes slightly open. And in that moment, Ichigo showed surprise by widening his eyes. He saw Rukia's violet eyes wondering around, like she couldn't see anything.

_'Damn it...' _Ichigo's shoulders tensed for preparation for Rukia's reactions. But instead of a scream or a slap, her eyes slowly closed and she fell back asleep. _'... moron...'_

When all of the substance went into Rukia's mouth, he wiped away the red colored liquid off of his face. Ichigo then grabbed Rukia's chin and slightly tilted it, making Rukia instantly gulp the medicine. It was her reaction towards something in her mouth, just like how people sleep and instinctively swallow their saliva. Her face made a frown at the bad taste and she moved around. She started coughing a little and then she went silent again.

Ichigo kept continuing this procedure, until he had 'kissed' her about 4 times. And for the last time, he wiped the sticky liquid off of his chin. He then stared at the face of Rukia, and used his jacket to wipe her face off also. He then walked to a chair and slumped on it. He was tired and he felt dizzy.

_'Why am I going so far for this girl...?' _Ichigo thought. He didn't want to come into contact with this girl. But whenever he saw her and when he saw her faint today, he felt some kind of duty for her. He felt guilt, because he was so reminded of _her _by Rukia. Ichigo sighed, then looked up at the ceiling with his brows furrowing more.

"Your still teasing me in your grave... aren't you...?" He said talking to someone that couldn't be seen. Then he glanced down and sighed. Afterwards, he gazed at the sleeping figure of Rukia "We just can't stay away from each other... can we?"

* * *

"Wha~ been a long time since I've set foot on this school.. feels sorta nostalgic~" said Kukkaku.

"Nee-san.. are you that old?" Ganju asked awkwardly. But he immediately regretted what he said.

"SHUT UP!" Kuukaku shouted and elbowed Ganju in the face, "By the way, you shouldn't be talking! Your already twenty, but you have a school uniform on! Aren't you embarrassed?"

"I'M EIGHTEEN!" Ganju wore a loose collared white shirt with grey pants. He had a bandanna on as usual, and he wore a sweat band on his wrist.

"Yeah yeah... whatever..." Kuukaku said, like she didn't care.

The two of them were in front of the gate and they saw a bunch of students crowded in a track. They were huddled up and they all were talking to one another. The two brother and sister squinted their eyes to see what was going on, in the middle they could see a small petite girl and a teacher shaking her.

"What's going on?" Kuukaku asked.

"I think a student just fainted..." Ganju said. His face showed concentration, for he thought that the girl's appearance was somewhat familiar, but his thoughts were interrupted when he saw the familiar bright orange head. "Kurosaki... Ichi..go..."

"Hmm... ya know him?" Kukkaku asked with a curious face, "Your friend?"

"... Nee-san..." Ganju whispered calmly, which made Kukkaku surprised, "He's the one who killed... Aniki..."

"..." Kukkaku didn't respond for a while, her face was blank without any expression of surprise. She stared at the orange head who was now picking up the small girl. She then suddenly whipped around to the way they came from, "Let's go back home!" she yelled to Ganju.

"What the hell! Nee-san? He's standing right there! I'm not going home!"

"Yes you are, the gates are closed. So you have to go to school tomorrow."

"NEE-SAN!"

"SHUT UP! We're going home!"

* * *

Rukia opened her eyes slightly and she glanced around her surrounding. She found that she was in the infirmary. She looked at the nurse's desk and saw someone sitting their. She didn't recognize her, because she was new to this school and she didn't know all of the teachers. The woman had shiny long black hair which was tied to the front.

Rukia sat up and she felt her chin slightly sticky feeling. This evidence trigger the strange dream that she had again:

She had seen Kurosaki Ichigo kissing her while she was asleep. But she couldn't believe it with the expression that he was making. But it actually felt real...

She shook off this thought.

_'I must've been hallucinating...'_

* * *

**OnigiriKami: **Yeah... so that 'kissing scene' wasn't really supposed to be romantic, but dramatic, for he's doing it to help Rukia. I really can't get this story because I worked little by little on it so I'm lost. Sorry if there's any spelling mistakes and any confusing parts... -.-'

Oh yeah! Rukia and Ichigo are 2nd years (16), Renji is a 3rd year (17), and Ganju is a 2nd year (18.. yeah he got held back 2 times)

Questions:

So who is 'HER'? It will be revealed in the next chapter ;)

Who is 'HE'? It will be revealed... later... .'

What does Ichigo mean when he says 'protect'? You'll see...

Why does Ichigo had split personality? Well, I'll give this one to you guys... you know how depression can make MANY disorders and such? Well Ichigo developed split personality from all the depression in his life.

What'll happen with Ganju in Karakura High! This will be one big ROFL... **BleachedAngel13 **told me this hilarious idea, so wait for it in the next chapter!

What is Ichigo's second trauma: WILL BE REVEALED IN THE NEXT 2-3 CHAPTERS!

Will Ichigo's past and Rukia's past be reviewed in a whole chapter each? YES!

Anymore questions? Then PM me or ask through a review, I'll try to answer, but if it's a spoiler then I will resist... unless you like spoilers, which will ruin it.. .'

*Rice Gruel: Like porridge. It's boiling rice and making it into soup, it tastes plain but with soy sauce and other thing like vegetable and dried seaweed it will bring flavor. It is commonly eaten when you are ill.. cause I eat it a lot when I have a fever and lots of people to. It is favored for eating when your ill, because it is soft to eat and doesn't take much effort to chew, you can easily swallow it.

Yeah... I know a lot about food.. especially Japanese, because my Dad's a sushi man... but imagine a 50 year old sushi man... -.-'

Oh, I named my puppy Dallang/Darang, in Korean it means "last one" because she was the last of the litter, it means the sound of what a bell makes like "Ding! Ding!", also it means "to serve" because we have high hopes that it will be very loyal to us :)

**HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!**

**20 REVIEWS... AND I'M SERIOUS! I WON'T UPDATE TILL I HAVE A MINIMUM OF THIS MUCH! **(yeah.. my mom's pissed that I'm so lazy with my homework and that I didn't study for the final exams... Tch... Asian moms... but at least I got a B on them! -.-')

**PREVIEW!:**

_"STOP FOLLOWING ME!" Rukia yelled in anger, as the orange head walked behind her with that same annoying blank expression._

_"I'm going the same way."_

_"No your not! Your house is in the other direction!"_

_"..."_

**See that button below? Press it!**


	9. Chapter 9: Love Letter

**PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE FIRST!**

**OnigiriKami: **HEY! Since I'm on my Thanksgiving Break, I'm gonna start updating! But first, I edited a little of my chapter in here, I changed my idea of the story, so I had to fix some things... my new idea is to loosely connect everyone...

**READ AND REVIEW!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach**

* * *

**Last Chapter...**

"You're still teasing me in your grave... aren't you...?" _He said talking to someone that couldn't be seen. Then he glanced down and sighed. Afterwards, he gazed at the sleeping figure of Rukia _"We just can't stay away from each other... can we?"

* * *

Two arms poked out of the blanket. The fists were clenched together as the two arms were being stretched by tiredness. A loud yawn came out of the blankets and juts of black hair sticked out of the sheets. It was a fuzzy mess, and as the head also came out of the blankets, there was a weary face.

Rukia had sore eyes, they were swollen and red, her face looked as if she were going to throw up.

"Damn... I didn't get enough sleep because of that dumb dream..." Rukia complained. She got up from the ground and started to fold the blankets neatly, and rolled the futon away. She put them at a corner, and then went to her closet to rummage through her clothings. "At least I'm not sick anymore... Ughh... where's my school uniform?" Rukia frantically looked everywhere in her room.

Rukia then spotted a grey blazer on the ground in the closet. She bent down and picked it up with her other uniforms concealed underneath the blazer, "There it was..." Rukia grumbled, then she walked into the bathroom. She took a quick shower, and then changed into her school clothes. She started to brush her teeth and when she was finished, she exited the bathroom, and went downstairs to see Renji in the kitchen.

"Morning, Renji..." Rukia dead-panned.

"Oh! Morning Rukia! I'm making some French toast!" Renji said, then he glanced at Rukia, "... what's the matter?"

"Sorry Renji.. I didn't get enough sleep..."

"Well, when you eat, you'll feel way better!"

"Sorry again... I don't feel hungry..."

"Oh... okay..."

"Then... I'm going to school first... bye..." Rukia said. Before Renji could even reply, Rukia headed to the front door, and started to walk to school.

"What's up with her...?" Renji asked himself. He thought for a few seconds, then shrugged it off. "Well whatever it was, Rukia could solve it herself." he went back to cooking and started to hum.

* * *

"Oi, what's with that ghost face?" Tatsuki said, zooming into Rukia's face. "You look dead..." Tatsuki saw that Rukia wasn't paying attention to her, so she waved her hand in front of Rukia repeatedly, "Hello?... Rukia!"

"Huh!" Rukia said in surprise, as she looked at Tatsuki, "A-Arisawa? W-What is it?"

"What's wrong with you? Are you feeling well? You still sick?" Tatsuki asked in worry.

It took Rukia a while to understand what Tatsuki was saying, "I'm fine... I just didn't get enough sleep..."

"Why?"

"I..." Rukia hesitated. She didn't know what Tatsuki's reaction would be if she told her. But since she was her friend, she could trust her. Before Rukia spoke, she looked around the classroom, and saw that Ichigo was staring at Uryuu talking about something. When she saw that Ichigo was paying attention to something else, she gave a sigh of relief and whispered to Tatsuki, "I had a really weird dream in the infirmary, yesterday..."

"Mmhmm.. and what was it?" Tatsuki said, her voice was lowered from the conversation's mood.

"..."

"Hmm?" Tatsuki asked, then she said, "Why's your face turning red?"

"..."

Tatsuki sighed at Rukia and said, "Rukia... if you don't tell me anything, then I won't know what's bothering you... so tell me..."

"... Okay..." Rukia took in a deep breath and then said, "I-I had a dream about Ichigo... and..."

"And...?"

".. and he k-k-kissed me..." Rukia said, her face started to rapidly heat up. She saw that Tatsuki was slowly smirking, and there was mischief in her eyes. "W-what?"

"... They say that dreams are one's true desire~" Tatsuki said. "So... that means.. you wanted Ichigo to kiss you!"

"Hah? Why would I want that guy to kiss me!" Rukia protested to Tatsuki's comment.

"That's what they all say... I know that deep down inside, you really wanna kiss him~"

"'All'? What do you mean all? And I don't want to kiss him!" Rukia shouted.

"Orihime is the 'all'. Ah, and your just in denial, Rukia~"

"Orihime..?" Rukia said, she focused more on Orihime than the bad comment that Tatsuki gave Rukia.

"Yep, she likes Ishida, she's always in denial though. She keeps blushing and saying that she doesn't like Ishida... But, I've seen that look on her face." Tatsuki said.

_'AH-HA! MY WOMANLY INSTINCTS WERE RIGHT!'_

"Ahh... do you think Ishida likes her back?" Rukia asked Tatsuki with a grin plastered on her face.

"I don't know... he always hangs around Ichigo... and he's a mystery. But he's nice to Orihime..."

* * *

"Kurosaki." Ishida stared hard at Ichigo who was sitting in his desk.

"... What?" Ichigo said, with the same monotonous voice. His amber eyes showed no curiousness toward Ishida's business with him.

"PLEASE!" Ishida shouted suddenly, and bowed his head down, "I want you to put this into Inoue-san's bag!" Ishida handed Ichigo a letter.

"What's this...?" Ichigo asked. He was about to rip the letter open, but Ishida stopped him.

"IDIOT! Don't open it! That's a love letter!"

"..."

".. I read my horoscope today! And it said that my love luck was very high! And I had feelings for Inoue-san ever since middle school!" Ishida said, as if he had to explain everything. "So this is why I am confessing my love to Inoue-san..."

"Moron..." Ichigo said. ".. You look at horoscopes..?"

"SHUT UP!" Ishida shouted, his face had turned red.

"... Anyways, I don't want to deliver this.. I'm not a mail man."

"... FINE THEN! I'LL MAIL IT MYSELF!"

"Whatever... don't put it in the wrong bag..."

_After lunch..._

"KUROSAKI! I put the letter in the wrong bag! What do I do! WHAT DO I DO?" Ishida panicked as he grabbed Ichigo's collar and started to shake it madly.

"I told you, you would."

"PLEASE HELP ME GET IT BACK!" Ishida begged as he went on his knees. "My sophisticated image will be ruined! If.. anyone were to see it... AGHH!" Ishida started twitching as the thought came up to him. "I'M BEGGING YOU KUROSAKI! I'LL DO ANYTHING FOR YOU!"

"Pay for all my meals for the next month..." Ichigo said to Ishida.

"It's a deal! Just get me back that letter!"

"Which bag is it in...?"

"There..." Ishida pointed at a desk where the short, small, raven haired girl sat at, "I accidentally sneaked the letter into her bag..."

"... Sorry... I can't do it." Ichigo said slowly as he realized who it was Ishida was pointing to.

"WHAT? Why, can't you do it? You're Kurosaki... I'll pay for a year!" Ishida bribed.

"... deal..."

* * *

"AHHHHHH! School's finally over! It's finally the weekends!" Rukia said while stretching from her desk. She yawned then started to put her books away in the school bag. She started to pound her shoulders to massage them, "I'm so tired."

KSHHH!

"Huh?" Rukia turned around to see who had made the noise of a chair squeaking against the floor. And she saw what was unexpected to her. It was the orange haired delinquent standing up from his seat. He was staring straight into Rukia's eyes and made her feel uncomfortable. She felt a blush coming to her face, so she looked away from him and started to pack up swiftly.

She hesitantly got up from her seat, and started to walk to the exit of the classroom. She slid opened the door with one hand and rested her other arm on her bag.

Before she left the classroom, she glanced one more time at Ichigo, then left.

As she walked through the empty corridor, she could here her shoes tapping every single time she took a step. But she suddenly thought her tapping was louder and double sounding.

She stopped.

But she could still here the noises of feet walking through the hallway. She slowly turned her head to see Ichigo following her.

_'I-It's okay, the exit is the way I'm going too...'_

She started to walk forward again. When she went down the stairs and all the way to the shoe locker, she quickly changed her shoes to her outdoor shoes. Then she fastened her pace and left the school. When she reached the school gate, she saw that he was still there looking at her and still walking towards her.

"What am I all heated up for.. this isn't anything!" Rukia said to herself as she realized that her face was getting redder and her heart was beating harder.

She finally reached the fork in the road where the two had to split... But, she saw that he had not turned to the way his house was, he was just following Rukia to the same way to her house.

Rukia could feel Ichigo's eyes burning at her back. She could feel shivers as she became more nervous. She had to stop him from following her, before Renji saw her in their meeting spot. If Renji were to see this, he would go berserk, for he was hot-headed at times.

Rukia stopped in her stride, she started to clench her fist, and held her breath back. She stood at her spot for a while, while Ichigo was staring at her with his hands in his pockets, his look never changing. Rukia then finally turned around with a scowl on her face, her eyebrows knitted together.

"STOP FOLLOWING ME!" Rukia yelled in anger, as the orange head walked behind her with that same annoying blank expression.

"I'm going the same way."

"No your not! Your house is in the other direction!"

"..."

"Why are you doing this? I thought you said to never be in each others' life!" She yelled furiously to the orange head, his eye lids lowered a little, but his expression never changing. "Quit making that face! You never show your emotions! It's annoying! I can't even read you!"

Ichigo started to walk closer to Rukia until he was only two feet away from her.

"Don't come near me until you answer my questions!" Rukia shouted, which made him fully stop advancing her.

"... Ask." Ichigo said silently, with his mellow voice. His amber eyes never taking off of her eyes.

"..." Rukia turned away with a blush on her face. She was avoiding his eyes, his strong piercing eyes. It felt as if he could read her every thoughts if he looked into her eyes. "... tell me... your second trauma..."

"... Ru" He said. He didn't give her the event of the trauma, but only the name of a person. "My friend... Ru..."

"What? Don't just give me a na-!" Rukia was cut off as she saw arms embracing her. Her violet eyes widened as she saw that Ichigo was hugging her. "W-What are you doing?" Rukia asked, she tried to get out of his grip by pushing him, but she couldn't. He was strong and forced her head on his chest.

"Be quiet." Ichigo whispered to her. She felt her face heat up, as she heard his heart beat. It was calm and steady, as if he wasn't minding this and knew what he was doing. As she heard the thumping, she was becoming increasingly worried that he could hear her loud and fast heart beat too.

She stopped struggling, because she knew it was pointless to free herself from him. He was so close that she could feel his body heat. Her heart beat became faster.

Without even thinking, her arms started moving on its own. They slowly rose up to wrap it around his body. She was just a inch away from touching his back. Her hands started to trembling because of the slow and delicate movements. But before she could touch his back, he had stopped hugging her, and started to walk back to the direction of his own house.

Rukia stood where she was left for a moment. Her eyes on his back, her face was the color of bright pink.

A total silence came for a few seconds...

"DAMN YOU, ICHIGO!" Rukia yelled, she dug through her bag, to find an eraser, and threw it at Ichigo's head. "DON'T EVER DO THAT!"

"..." Ichigo turned around to look at her, a tiny smile was on his face, "It was only to shut you up." then he turned back and walked.

"... he... he just smiled..." Rukia said, disbelieved. Then she slowly realized that a smile came onto her face. "Why am I so happy to see that idiot smile?" she yelled at herself. She started to pull her hair, and then started to scream. Confusion had engulfed her. She stood there looking at the ground...

She looked back at the orange head.

A smile small had crept onto her face again.

* * *

"Here." Ichigo said, giving the white enveloped letter to Ishida. Ishida had been waiting by the grassy knoll near the river.

"How did you get it back?" Ishida asked Ichigo, raising one brow.

"I hugged her."

"Hah?" Ishida asked, making a confused face. "... never mind, you're always unclear when you explain things..." He then sighed at the scenery, "Thanks... I don't know what I would have done without you..."

"No, I owe you a lot..." Ichigo said. Ishida turned his head slightly and gave him a deep stare. He sighed and then finally said what was bottled up in his head, "Ichigo... you should forget about the past.."

"How can I forget about that girl? Another person that I couldn't save?" Ichigo said with a shaky voice. "You know it right? I can never forgive myself for what I had done 7 years ago!" For the first time in a long time, Ichigo showed enormous pain on his face. This expression reached to Ishida, his pain was deep.

"I can never... forgive myself..."


	10. Chapter 10: Reminiscing and A Job

**OnigiriKami: **Sorry for the VERY late update... Thank you for still sticking to this story :) So, at the end, I would like to thank you guys... 100 times :DDD. But I'm pretty unsatisfied with this chapter since I suck like HELL on my writing... and since this is just a small chapter that doesn't give a whole lot of meaning...

Well, enjoy xD

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach**

**READ AND REVIEW!**

* * *

Rukia sighed. She had been sitting on her desk. One of her arm propped up her head and her eyelids droop. "I'm so bored... and it's the weekends..." Rukia glanced at the mini clock set aside on her desk and saw that it was only the afternoon. She hated being bored, or alone, if she did the bad times would come back haunting her again...

_The small ten year old girl with a yellow dirty shirt and a pair of blue trousers, Rukia, ran through the alleyways of Inuzuri: The worse city in Japan. She ran together with a red head who had a white smudged tank top and ripped trousers, who was putting all his strength into running._

_"Hahaha! You can't beat me, Renji!" Rukia said, her arms swaying back and forth._

_"Shut up! Girls can't beat guys!" Renji said and then built up his speed. But that was a big mistake, because afterwards he lost his stride from the lack of air. He saw Rukia passing him with ease. She was looking directly at him and stuck her tongue out at him, "Bleh! You loser!"_

_Then Renji saw where Rukia was heading, "Rukia, you idiot, watch out!"_

_"Huh?" Rukia turned around just to crash into a man sitting on a pile of trash cans. He had a black hood on, covering his eyes and a singly cigarette in his mouth, but it wasn't lit yet. He had his hands in his pockets and he was just looking up at the polluted sky._

_The man wore a black jacket and a pair of grey skinny jeans. He had a metal chain coming out of the pocket of the jeans. And a red shirt popped out of his black jacket. His cheeks looked pale, with short stubs of black coming out of it. He clearly didn't take care of himself well._

_"S-Sorry..." Rukia said with hesitation._

_"Yeah, next time don't do that, kid." The man said, his cigarette moving up and down as his lips moved. This reply that the man had made angered Rukia. He had said it in a cocky way and wasn't paying much attention to her. So she looked around him to see any retort that she could make. Then she eyed his cigarette._

_"You shouldn't smoke, you'll just get stupid!" Rukia said, then stretched one of her bottom eye lid and stuck out her tongue._

_"Shut up. It's okay to just taste it, right?" The man then turned his head slowly around to face her. He had a bluish-blackish hair and he had thick eye lashes on his lower eye lid, he had a swirl-like tattoo on his left arm. The cigarette in his mouth moved while he was talking, "What are you little brats doing here? Go back to your parent, it's dangerous here." After the mini lecture, he swerved his head back to the sky. "Damn, look at the dirty sky..."_

_Rukia stood at her spot, she looked at the man curiously, she had never seen a man like this, most people in this disgusting town would never care for another, but this person had told her and Renji to go back home because it wasn't safe. "Hey! Why are you still standing here? Hurry up and go home!" said the man when he saw that the kid hadn't move from her place._

_"We don't have a home.." Renji retorted shyly to the stranger._

_"Your parents?" He asked back._

_"We don't know where they are..."_

_"Come on! Are you serious?" The man said in frustration, he scratched his hood a little as if showing his annoyance. "Well... it can't be helped..." he muttered under his breath, then he changed the subject, "Hey, you guys look pretty hungry right now, how about I buy you guys something to eat."_

_Rukia hesitated... He was a person that Rukia didn't know about, it was weird for her to just trust him and then go along with him. "He's gonna rape us..." Renji whispered in her ear._

_"I HEARD THAT!" the man yelled to the red pineapple head then grabbed the boys head and hit the top of it. "Who taught you kids that word?"_

_"You're not from here, are you?" Renji said, with a hint of struggle in his voice. "And I said that cause how can we trust a person that we just met?" The black haired man stared at the red head. _

_"True... " he replied. "Fine, I'll introduce myself: My name is Kaien! But you guys can call me Kai!" said Kaien, he allowed the kids to give him a nickname and announce him familiarly because he wanted to earn their trust. "Now let's go." Kaien said, dragging Renji, while Rukia tailed from behind._

Rukia's eyes grew a little heavy...

_"Hey Kaien-san?" Rukia called out._

_"What?" Kaien said, looking up from his magazine. Renji was looking at it with Kaien also, his face was as red as his hair color. They were all in a one room apartment that belonged to Kaien. "And I told you to address me with my nickname, Kai."_

_"Ah, sorry... Kai.. san.." Rukia said, not able to address him without the -san. "Why are you being so nice to us?"_

_"Hah? What? So I can't be nice to you little kids? So am I supposed to be mean to you guys?" Kaien asked sarcastically, then went back to looking at his 'magazine'._

_"Please.. Kai-san, you don't have to feel sorry for us..." Rukia said sadly. He was only doing all this, because he saw Rukia and Renji in a pitiful way. Renji and her were random and poor abandoned kids in his eyes. That was the only reason why he was so kind... that was the only reason..._

_"You know, you think like an adult for a kid.." Kaien said, averting his attention from the magazine to Rukia "But when did I said that I'm doing this out of pity? I, Kaien, never show pity in Inuzuri! I'm just being nice cause I feel like it! Don't get any ideas, brat!" Kaien yelled, then focused back on his magazine. _

_Renji had a little bit of blood coming out of his nostrils..._

"Perverts..." Rukia whispered, as she remembered that event, she gave a small laugh.

_"Kai-san... can you give me a nickname?"_

_"What?" Kaien asked, with a confused face. He had been about to doze to sleep, until Rukia had asked another of her random questions. "What did you say?"_

_"I... I want a nickname too..." Rukia said, her face getting slightly red._

_"Why would you want one?"_

_"W-Well it's only fair, since you want us to call you by a nickname..."_

_"Fine, fine... How 'bout..."_

"Rukia!" called out a strong voice. Rukia's eyelids began to open wide as she saw Renji running up to her room. "Rukia! Guess what!"

"What is it?" Rukia asked with a curious face.

"Remember how you wanted to have a job and stuff like that?.."

"Yeah, but you said no, I had to concentrate on my school work..."

"Well, that's all in the past... You see, at the restaurant I'm working at, they're hiring a waiter! So... at my break, I mentioned about you to my manager, and he agreed to hire you!" Renji said, with an enthusiastic smile. "You can work now! And then the more money we get!" Renji grinned. Although he did not look like it, he was a greedy person. The years of being sick of being poor had made him lust for money.

"Oh I see... so when do I start working?" Rukia asked, not sharing the same mood as Renji.

"Hmm... since Sunday is closing day... and the manager wants you to sign the personal application form and interview you... you should be able to start when he calls us.." Renji said, putting on his thinking stare.

"Alright, then everything's good!" Rukia said, smiling at Renji, "Thanks for getting me this."

"Hey! What's a friend like me for?" Renji rose his hand up, and was waiting for Rukia to slap it. Rukia stared at it for a while, and then gave him the high-five. "AWESOME! WE'RE GONNA BE HAVING DOUBLE THE MONEY!" Renji yelled, clenching his fists in joy.

* * *

Ishida walked up to the sleeping form of the orange haired teenager. "Wake up, Kurosaki! Stop laying around in bed all day!" Ichigo had been living in Ishida's house ever since he had run away from home... Ishida lived in an apartment that was payed by his father, but Ishida's father left the electric bill for himself to take care for. "You lazy ass! Hurry up and wake up Kurosaki!"

"Shut up, you're annoying..." Ichigo finally responded, he was still covered in his blankets and did not move.

"You know, you've been munching off of me for a long time! I'm tired of how you don't do anything around here!" Ishida paused in his little lecture. He was like a mom. "I-If you don't get a job right now, I'm going to seriously kick you out of my house!" Ishida threatened. He was the only person who could talk so harshly with Ichigo.

".. Fine..."

"What?..- I mean... GOOD!" Ishida said, bewildered my Ichigo's agreement. "I'll find and do everything for you, but you better not screw up the interview! I want you to get a job in one shot! Got it?"

"Whatever, just leave me alone!" Ichigo yelled, then tossed and turned a little before falling back asleep.

* * *

**THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU ****THANK YOU THANK YOU ****THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ****THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU**

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

WHAT'LL HAPPEN NEXT?

REVIEW!


	11. Chapter 11: Trauma One

**OnigiriKami: **Ahahaha... I'm back again... somehow I've been refreshed from my writer's block, but it still doesn't mean I'm gonna update fast.. I have a lot of school work.. and my mom's pissed that I'm a computer-holic. Yeah... and I got a Droid Incredible (BATTERY LIFE SUCKS), but it sucks how I can't write chapters in their. Oh yeah, and these ads on fanfic are as annoying as hell! Like "please support blah blah blah" and I'm like, "Dude, back off, I'm only stalking a profile." LOL jk jk... or maybe not O.O

Well, thanks for staying with this story, I'm not good with high vocabulary (I'm an average student) but it'll be worth it, cause this story has a lot in store... A lot of drama... which I hate in real life =.= And reviews, and you guys keep me going :) so thanks you guys :DD

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach**

**READ AND REVIEW!**

* * *

**Last Chapter...**

_"You know, you've been munching off of me for a long time! I'm tired of how you don't do anything around here!" Ishida paused in his little lecture. He was like a mom. "I-If you don't get a job right now, I'm going to seriously kick you out of my house!" Ishida threatened. He was the only person who could talk so harshly with Ichigo._

_".. Fine..."_

_"What?..- I mean... GOOD!" Ishida said, bewildered by Ichigo's agreement. "I'll find and do everything for you, but you better not screw up the interview! I want you to get a job in one shot! Got it?"_

_"Whatever, just leave me alone!" Ichigo yelled, then tossed and turned a little before falling back asleep._

* * *

"Hey, Kurosaki!" called out the bespectacled man. Ishida had just came back from shopping for his knitting tools. He held about three fliers in one hand, the other holding the shopping bag.

"What do you want?" Ichigo said on the couch. He was watching some kind of ghost show that was playing.

"I got you some fliers for jobs. Here they are.. Mochilato!"

"No."

"Um.. Wacdonald's?"

"Hell no."

"What about this restaurant Dancing Moon?" Ishida suggested. It was the last flier suggestion.

"What type of restaurant?"

"It's those fancy ones."

"Alright then, that's fine." Ichigo decided, it was the only best option: a frozen yogurt place, a fast food restaurant, or a high class restaurant. "When do I start working?"

"Well you'll have to first fill out your application, then you do an interview... it's closed today, so tomorrow we'll do the application and interview and then start working once the manager calls you." Ishida said, then pushed his glasses up more. "If you fail this, you'll die, Kurosaki!"

"Whatever." Ichigo said plainly, then turned back to the television and flipped the channel. "Stupid show.."

"Well.. Im going to be upstairs Kurosaki, if you need anything you know where to find me." Ishida said, then went upstairs and went into his room.

Ichigo stared at Ishida's leaving figure. He slowly slouched and then laid on the couch, his eyes still on the television, but his mind slowly drifting to something else. When he was alone like this, just laying down and staring into nothingness made him think about everything. The television noise slowly faded away and he remembered something from a long time ago... He was remembering his mother.. the person he couldn't protect on that day..

On that day he couldn't do anything.

_"Mom!" Ichigo yelled to his mother, Masaki. He was a young boy, and he had a huge smile drawn on his face. His orange hair was a little wet from the rain, but he was now holding an blue umbrella. Ichigo's mother was right besides him, smiling back._

_"What is it, Ichigo?" Masaki said gently to her son. _

_"I heard from Tatsuki that whenever it rains, it means the sky's crying!" Ichigo said amazingly, "Mom, why's the sky so sad?"_

_"No, Ichigo, Tatsuki-chan got it all wrong. The sky cries because it's soooo happy that it starts crying!" Masaki said, then started laughing at her statement._

_"Really? So then the sky get's happy a lot!" _

_"Mhmm, the sky is always happy. Now hold my hand, it's not safe walking near the street." Masaki said and Ichigo held her hand right away. "Hmm, once we get home, what should we eat? Karashi mentaiko* with rice?" _

_"YAY! I love karashi mentaiko Mom." Ichigo yelled happily. Then they got silent and was walking on their way home. But Ichigo could sense something behind them, the faintest noise of footsteps. He could distinguish this one from the rest because him and his mother were the only ones walking on the sidewalk.. there wouldn't be a third person that just popped out. "Mom, I know a shortcut!" Ichigo said, yanking his mother to a curve that was totally opposite from their home, this creepy feeling had overwhelmed him so he wanted to test something out. He curved towards an alleyway._

_"Ichigo! What are you doing? This isn't the way home." _

_"No, this is a shortcut!" Ichigo said, he then quickly turned around to see a shaggy looking man, his face was slightly covered with his hood, but he could see the creepy smile on his face. The man made eye contact with Ichigo, his smile stretched more, and he started skipping. He slowly pulled out a kitchen knife and started singing a lullaby._

_"Hush little baby... don't say a word..." Then he put his index finger next to his mouth as if he was hushing Ichigo. He flipped the knife and then caught it, he did it again in a repetition manner. He calmly skipped to Ichigo and Masaki._

_"Ichigo, run." Masaki ordered Ichigo. She had finally seen who was tailing them, and why Ichigo was doing so many unnecessary things. _

_"But Mom!" Ichigo shouted back at his mother. How could he abandon his own flesh and blood. Whoever could do such a thing was a extremely cold-hearted person. _

_"I said ru-" Masaki was cut off as she was struck with the knife in her back. She was too into Ichigo's safety that she didn't focus on the psychotic man that was behind her. "Ichi-" she said, then slowly went to Ichigo. Her legs started wobbling and she tried to grab for Ichigo. But then another strike came to her back. _

_"Ahahaha!" The killer said, he started to laugh and although it was covered in the rain, he was crying. "So this is how it felt like! This is how Mom was killed!"_

_Ichigo stared into nothingness. He just saw a slow movement of his mother falling down to the ground. He couldn't hear anything, it felt as if the world had stopped. He couldn't move his body, all he felt was his own trembling... he only felt his fear and the rain. _

_"It's your turn kid." The man turned to Ichigo and slowly dragged his feets. It was as if his energy was drained from killing Masaki. "I would've let you go if you didn't saw what happened..."_

_"No... no..." Ichigo muttered, his eyes widened and never losing sight of the man's face. But he jolted in surprise, the man was being tripped over by something grabbing onto his right leg. It was the hand of his mother. The man tipped over and started screaming, he thrashed around and revealed that his own knife had stabbed his chest. His screaming was heard all over the streets and he did it for a long time. Then finally, his screaming had died, and his movements became slow. _

_He was dead._

_Ichigo's body relaxed instantly when he sensed no danger and his eyes went white. He dropped to the floor and passed out..._

Ichigo could here the rain pounding outside. The season was the beginning of winter, but the weather was still autumn like. His memory was the same, it would never change. Only his memory would be more vivid on the exact date that she had died. But today, he was just reminiscing. He closed his eyes and his mind slowly went back to what had happened next..

_"Where am I?" Ichigo asked himself slowly, his eyes droopy and his head hurting for some reason. He looked around him to spot two people laying on the ground. He walked towards them and turned around the woman's body first. He then screamed when he saw the lifeless face of his mother who was looking aimlessly at the sky. He remembered now, the event came back to him like a huge wave. He remembered that the other body was the one that had killed his mother. He remembered that he was almost killed... He remembered that he couldn't do anything. _

_"Th-This isn't real!" Ichigo said to himself with a shaky voice. He shook his head violently at started to laugh hysterically, "If I just wake up, then we'll be home eating karashi mentaiko!"_

_But nothing happened. _

_"AHHHHHHHH!" he shrieked and grabbed tufts of his hair, he made himself into a secure ball. "WHY! WHY COULDN'T I DO ANYTHING!" He blamed himself, his tears coming out. "I PROMISED TO DAD! I WAS THE NUMBER ONE GUARDIAN! BUT WHY DID I JUST STOOD THERE WATCHING!" This horrible feeling was to much for him. It churned in his belly, making him want to puke._

_The person who made his world into a lively color was gone. __His world was now black and white._

_Everything was nothing now._

_There was silence, only the sound of the rain pounding the streets. _

_"Liar... I hate myself."_

"Kurosaki... Are you.. crying?" The familiar voice of Ishida asked awkwardly. He had came downstairs and saw a slid of wet substance that looked like a tear falling off of Ichigo's face.

Ichigo woke up abruptly from his doze and stared at the ceiling, not making eye contact with Ishida. He gave a long pause before he spoke, "You better fix your roof, it's leaking." Ichigo said, then got off the couch and went upstairs to his room.

"But... this is the first floor..." Ishida said to himself.

* * *

"Renji! Can I have some money for the movies so I could go with Arisawa and Inoue?" Rukia asked Renji who was cooking in the kitchen. He was like a single mom.. but he had his dad moments.

"No." He said.

"Why? Stop being so uptight about money." Rukia complained. "I just need about 1500 yen, I'll eat at home."

Renji stopped cooking. He thought about it. Rukia had not asked for much and they had been through so many tough times. It was his fault that everything ended like this. If he hadn't taken her away from that orphanage...

_"Hey, I'm Renji!" yelled the pineapple head triumphantly. He was wearing worn out clothing and had a dirty, uncleaned face. "Why're you here?" _

_"My.. my guardian abandoned me when I was a baby.." Rukia whispered. This subject was a little personal to her, and she didn't like thinking much about it. "And you?" Rukia asked back. Since he asked her, she asked him. She purposely made her voice tough and deep, she was like a young tomboy._

_"Me? I got in here because I was found stealing bread."_

_"And your parents?"_

_"I donno, maybe dead." Renji shrugged and said carelessly. "I've been in this foster home for a week."_

_"I've been in here for nine years." Rukia replied back, "So I guess I'm your senior here!" She smirked._

_"No! I'm older than you, I'm ten!" The red head protested. _

_"But I'm your senior beca-" Rukia was interrupted by the guardian._

_"Rukia Kuchiki, please come here." Rukia turned her body toward the direction on the voice and walked to the woman that called her. _

_"Yes, Yoshino-san?" Rukia asked. Renji stared at the two people talking together but couldn't hear the rest of what they were saying, and brushed it off. He walked away toward a ball in the crummy looking playground. He kicked the ball many times while waiting for the couple to finish their talk. He was waiting for Rukia because of all the people he had talked to in the orphanage, somehow just talking to her for the first time drawed his attention to her..._

_"Hey Renji! Sorry for making you wait long." Rukia shouted to Renji. "Oh! You wanna play a game with that ball?" _

_"... Sure." Renji said, his cheeks slightly red. _

_(1 month later)_

_"HEY RENJIIIIII! WAKE UP!" Rukia shouted, then gave Renji a mighty punch to his cheek._

_"OWWWWW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" Renji shouted, instantly awoken by Rukia's power punch. "Why do you have to wake me up like that?"_

_"You told me to, remember? You always sleep like a dog, that's why you never get the best food." Rukia said, "Well.. they already did take all the good stuff..."_

_"WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP!"_

_"Shut up. You're lucky you have me..." Rukia smiled._

_"What the hell is that supposed to-" Renji was cut off when he saw that Rukia took out a tiny bag from her pocket pants. She opened it and grabbed Renji's hand. She poured out the thing that was inside of it. It was konpeito*._

_"Here.. I saved some for you." Rukia mumbled, her eyes not meeting his. Renji blushed a little and stared at the konpeitos in his hand. "What are you doing? Not gonna eat these?" Rukia said after realizing he was just staring at the star shaped candies._

_"Shut up!" Renji moved his hands away from Rukia's direction. "Of course I'm having it, idiot!"_

_"You're welcome idiot." she said then gave a small smile. She then went out of the boy's room and went back into the girl's room._

_While Rukia exit the room, Renji's eyes focused on her back. He saw her open the door and closed it shut. There was a moment of silence and Renji stared at the konpeito in his hands a little longer before he spoke, "This is bad.." He didn't want to get close to anyone, because he knew that one day his dear friends would leave him and get adopted. The many interviews Renji had, and he always got a displeasing reception. But a girl like Rukia... so many would be pleased with her. Renji was even shocked that she hadnt gotten adopted into a foster family yet._

_"This is bad."_

"Alright then, I'll give you the damn money." Renji said, he rummaged through his pockets for his wallet and took out the paper money and handed it to her. "But you better not come late! If you do, I'm not letting you in the house!"

"Thanks Renji! And alright!" Rukia said, and smiled at him.

_"So Rukia... that's your name right?" _

_Rukia was sitting on an end of a table and on the other end was a chubby, greasy looking old man. He gave the creepiest looks and smiles toward her direction and it might have been Rukia hallucinating, but every now and then he would glance at her chest and her legs. The thought of that made shivers go up Rukia's back, so she shook it off. "YEAH, THAT'S MY NAME! NOW WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Rukia shouted with attitude._

_"RUKIA!" yelled out the guardian. "I told you to stop being so rude!- I'm sorry, she's not usually this disrespectful..." Yoshino-san lectured Rukia and then averted her attention from the old man. She pushed down the top of Rukia's head and forced her to bow down, "Say sorry!"_

_"No, no, it's alright!" The old man said, shaking his hand to stop Yoshino-san's actions. "Maybe we just need some time alone to talk."_

_"But... I can't leave her alone..."_

_"No, it's fine, this'll let us know each other better and besides, you're pressuring her." _

_"A-Alright then... I'll leave you two alone for about 15 minutes." Yoshino-san agreed hesitantly, then left the room._

_The two people sitting in the room were very quiet, Rukia trying to not make eye contact with the old man and him looking at her body from top to bottom._

_"How old are you, Rukia-chan?" Just that way he called her name creeped Rukia out. She could feel goosebumps on her skin and sweat slowly forming on her forehead. Rukia woudn't speak, not one answer will come out of her mouth to him. "I said how old are you?" he repeated._

_"..."_

_"Not answering huh?"_

_"..."_

_The man suddenly got out of his chair and walked over to Rukia. He stared at her again. Eyeing her with a disgusting hungry, he slowly slid his hand on Rukia's shouders and then stroked her hair roughly. He bent down to her height and whispered in her ear: "I really like girls like you."_

_"THAT'S IT! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Rukia shouted. She was surpressing her defiance until it bursted out. "DISGUSTING! DISGUSTING! DISGUSTING!" Rukia repeated, then kicked the man away from her, she started to rub her shoulders and hair as if she was wiping away the dirty touch that the man had left. "Don't touch me, you nasty perverted old man!" Rukia shouted._

_The man got up from where he had been thrown and grunted a little. "You fucking brat." His back had been cracked and he strided to Rukia, about to hit her..._

_"Is everything alright?" Yoshino-san asked, barging into the room. A few seconds before she could see what the man was doing, he stopped and smiled at her. _

_"No. nothings wrong, everythings alright."_

_"Oh.. I see... How was she?" _

_"She was wonderful, I want to welcome her into the family right away!"_

_"NOO! I don't want to go!" Rukia shrieked. No matter what, no matter what she would never won't to go to that vile disgusting man. Death would be better than going to him._

_"Rukia! Don't you want a family? Everyone else will be adopted!" Yoshino-san shouted back. She wasn't doing this to get rid of her, but for a better future for her._

_"Hahaha, it's alright, I think she needs a little time before she leaves. I'll come pick her up tomorrow." The old man said, then he bent down to Rukia until he was an inch from her ear and whispered, "Once I have you, I'm gonna do so many things too you..." he then chuckled in a high pitched voice. He rose up and then left the room with Yoshino-san tailing behind him._

_Rukia froze in her place, all these years she had avoided being adopted. All these years she had rejected those nice people and now she got the worst scumbag. Once she goes in his hand, she would be a toy, a toy that would be used and used until it was broken... She wasn't one to cry, but somehow, just sitting their, being able to do nothing about this wanted to make her cry so badly. Being able to do nothing to control her own fate. She rolled her fist to a ball, she was trying so hard not to cry. The tears slowly started to slide out until she heard the door open and the voice of Yoshino-san._

_"Why were you like that, Rukia?" Yoshina-san asked._

_"... I.." Rukia hesitated. Her throat clenching because she was holding in the cry that she was muffling with sheer force. But when she spoke again, she yelled it out and bursted. "I DON'T WANT TO GO WITH THAT MAN!"_

_"What are you talking about? You have to go with him! You don't want to live here! Don't you want a better life? Instead of staying in this dump? You've already caused me enough trouble, making everything so troublesome, chasing away people!" Yoshino-san shouted, and complained. "... I'm sick and tired of you! If you don't want to go with him, your out of this place!" Yoshino-san said these cruel words not out of hatred but love. She didnt want Rukia to live in this trash. It would be better if she just lived a better life... Yoshino-san had gotten very attached to the childrens that lived here. She was like a real mom to these childrens here. She cared for them.. maybe enough to sacrafice for them. _

_"I HATE YOU!" Rukia shouted back, then ran out of the door. Rukia started to cry and was blinded by her tears, only her legs carried her to wherever she was going. The woman who was like her mother figure was disowning her. It hurted, it hurted so much, and this made Rukia wonder... was her parents like this when they abandonned her? She shook this off of her mind, everytime she thought about that topic, it would always give her headaches._

_"OUCH!" _

_Rukia had collided with another person. She was flung down to the floor because of the strong impact. She looked up to see who it was that she had bumped into.._

_It was Renji._

_"Oi Rukia!... What's wrong?" Renji first addressed her then saw that she was crying. He wasn't one to wait for answers, so he grabbed her shoulders and shook her furiously, "Who made you cry?" Renji started to freak out because for the past month he had never once seen Rukia cry and the way she broke down made him very insecure. "Tell me who did this to you?"_

_"Nobody..." Rukia said then sobbed some more, covering her face so that Renji couldn't see her cry. _

_"Tell me! You think you can solve anything just by crying? If you tell me..." Renji said then changed to a softer tone, "I can help you..."_

_Maybe those words were what Rukia wanted to hear. That someone could help her, even if it was the slightest chance... Rukia took her hands away from her face and wiped away the tears quickly, she sniffed her nose and then she began to explain what happened. _

_"So now I'm going to get adopted to this dirty old pervert.." Rukia ended._

_"... Let's run away together." Renji blurted out. He didn't have a second to think at all._

_"What? Are you crazy?"_

_"Well it's better than going to that pervert!"_

_"What about food, money?"_

_"We can go to the main kitchen and steal some food... and for the money... we're gonna have to sneak it from Yoshino's safe."_

_"... How do you know where the safe is?"_

_"Eh, I saw her opening it. She's pretty careless when it comes to those things."_

_"You know the combination number too?"_

_"08-18-05."_

_"... Alright.." Rukia thought, the plan was reasonable now, "But we have to do this tonight! I'm getting picked up by that pedofile tomorrow.. And anyways... Yoshino-san wouldn't care..."_

_"Okay then, meet up in the hallway between the girls' and boys' room! You'll get the food, while I hack the safe." Renji said, then made a fist for Rukia to pound. She pounded back and smiled._

_"Thanks Renji."_

_"No prob." Renji answered back. He wasn't doing this just for Rukia's sake... it was for him too. He would call himself selfish because of these reasons. He didn't want to hand over Rukia to anyone. If they both ran away, then him and her will be together longer. Instead of him waiting each day that Rukia would be taken away from him, she would be right besides him. This was how he wanted it to be. This way... he could be happy._

_That day, Renji and Rukia did not meet after they discussed their plan. They didn't blink to each other's direction or talked to each other. While the afternoon passed by, it was finally time for their curfew, and everyone was put into their rooms. The boys were playing around for a while and after that, they finally fell asleep, same went for the girls' room. Renji and Rukia's plan were finally set into action. Renji rose from his bunkbed and opened the door slightly only to come to a halt. The door made a loud noise. _

_"Crap." Renji whispered. Then he turned around to see if the boys were still sleeping. They were snoring and drooling. "Boys will be boys.." Renji said then shrugged his shoulder and opened the door all the way. He crept out of the room and closed it gently. "Step one, success." Renji said in triumph. He ran through the corridoor and went to a big picture frame, he took out a stool that was lying around the room and stepped on top of it. He put down the heavy picture frame slowly so that it wouldn't make a loud thud. After putting down the frame, he saw the safetly box combination lock and twisted the knob to '08-18-05' then a click noise could be heard. He pulled open the box to see the money and grabbed a load of it in his hands. "Sorry Yoshino... hope you can forgive me..." He then ran to the designated place to meet up with Rukia. As he reached the hallway, he saw her clenching on a bag. "Is that the food?"_

_"Yeah... and other handy things..." Rukia replied._

_"Then let's go." Renji lead the way to the front door and Rukia followed, he unlocked the handle and opened it. He was the first to come out, while Rukia was still inside. She looked around the house and then a tear dropped from her eye._

_"This was my home..."_

_"... Yeah, mine too." Renji whispered back. Then they both were outside, Renji relocked the door and shut it. They looked at the smoky sky and walked along the road. They got to the crosswalk and crossed the street, but before they could even touch the road, a car sped up almost hitting Renji. "Crazy drunk!" Renji yelled at the car that kept driving forward._

_"Renji... what do we do now?" Rukia asked with a shaky voice. This outside world which Yoshino-san had hid from them was now seen with these two's innocent eyes._

_"..I don't know... "_

_Welcome to Inuzuri._

_

* * *

_

"You dumbass!" A punch went straight at Ganju's big face. The punch had great force and tumbled him to the other side of the wall. He was in an old fashioned Japanese traditional house. There was a table in the middle of the room, Ganju on one side and the other side was his older sister, Kuukaku.

"OWW! Nee-san! What was that for?" Ganju yelled.

"You idiot! You fucking idiot! You got the wrong guy!" Kuukaku screamed.

"What the hell? I got the right guy! Wasn't he an orange head!"

"Well, did you ever thought of the guy's age?" Kuukaku finally said. After just seeing Ichigo's face she knew it wasn't him. When Ganju brought her to the school, she had first that he was a teacher working there but when she saw that it was a student, she knew Ganju had gotten the wrong guy.

"You got the fucking wrong guy!"

* * *

**OnigiriKami: **Yeap... well that's it for now, next chapter will be good. I think the past chapter and this one was just a filler for the weekends, but the real deal will come in the next chapter. These were flashbacks so you guys coud get more background on the characters... Sorry for spelling errors and anything weird. :P

Have you guys realized... I like borrowing characters from animes... but I like making their own personalities O.o so some of the characters will be OOC... sorry if you don't like that :/

Ganju got the wrong guy! Cause he's an idiot...

*Karashi mentaiko: Pollack eggs

*Konpeito: Japanese star shaped candy

**Next chapter:**

_A tall toned man came into the restuarant door. He was in a business suit but he quickly loosened the tie on him. He had black hair, gray eyes and a 69 tactoo on one of his cheek. _

'He's good looking...' _Rukia thought._

**REVIEW :D**


	12. Chapter 12: Monochrome

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**OnigiriKami: READ AND REVIEW! PLEASE XDD Sorry if this chapter was toooo quick, I felt like I had to update! :] Well now we're back on story plot, and we gots a few new characters :]]]]**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH!**

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* * *

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Rukia sat in the classroom, she saw Hanatarou going over his homework like the diligently timid person he was. Rukia was waiting for Tatsuki to come. Yesterday was supposed to be fun but before Rukia had arrived to the theater, something had put her in a bad mood:

_As she was walking to the theater, Rukia heard a song being played in the town center. It was a peaceful song that was being played on a guitar, filling the streets. The song was so good that it was caught in her head. Then curiosity got to her and she looked around her to find the source of the guitarist. Her ears and feet lead her to the way of the music, and she stopped in front of a vagabond._

_He was gently stroking the strings and tapping his foot along the beat. His face was covered up with his hat and a hood over it. He wore dirty baggy clothing and his chin was covered with dirt. Rukia only stared at him in awe, not the least of her respect for him went away. She was like him, and Kaien was like him also.. living on the streets and making money off of whatever was available._

_Five minutes passed by and he stopped playing the song, he glanced up at her. Rukia couldn't see his eyes, only his mouth slowly parting. Rukia could feel her shoulders tense and she started to blush as to being caught staring at him. She gave him a steady bow and put her hand in her bag to find the extra change she had. "This is all I have... if I had more, I would like to give you more... That song was very beautiful..." Rukia said quietly, looking at the ground. She placed the money into the guitar case, the man staring at her, but Rukia could still not see his full face. She began to walk away, but before she could even take three steps, she heard the tune again. She turned around to see that he was strumming the guitar again, and a big smile plastered on his face, his whole body dancing to the rhythm._

_She stayed a little longer. _

_She was smiling._

_Then the song ended again, and Rukia saw that the vagabond had slowly yanked her to the floor. Rukia yelped at the sudden action, "What...?" Before she could see his face, he gave her a kiss on the cheek. Rukia's eyes widened and she froze in shock. The man's smile stretched more, and he went to his guitar case, picked up the change and gave it back to Rukia, then put the guitar in it. He locked the secure hinges, walked away and said, "Thanks."_

_Rukia crouched in place, not moving for a second. _

_"W-What?"_

Rukia's face turned red. Just thinking about that made her feel so embarrassed. It was so frustrating that she let her guard down and let a stranger kiss her on the cheek. Well, Ichigo had kissed her on the cheek too, but she was long over it now.

"Yo, Rukia!" Tatsuki called out to Rukia who was deep in her thoughts.

"Oh hey Arisawa..."

"What's up?"

"Hey, you remember yesterday, when we went to the movies... sorry that I came pissed..." Rukia said, truly feeling sorry that she had made the atmosphere awkward.

"Oh yeah, what happened?"

Rukia's face turned into a tomato, she ducked her head down, not meeting Tatsuki's eyes and said, "Something really weird happened..."

"Hmmm.. what?" Tatsuki asked carefully.

"Well... yesterday, while I was walking to the theater, I was kissed by this stranger..." Rukia said awkwardly.

"WHAT? Where? Cheek, or lip! If lip, a normal or French?" Tatsuki asked, not in real worry, but amused curiosity.

"Cheek."

"Oh.. Eh, boring." Her energy now going away.

Rukia spaced out again. She heard Tatsuki keep talking, but she didn't process what she was saying in her head. _'Maybe... I should go back there and see if he's there... I should confront him.'_

"Ahhh, I feel left out... wish I could get a guy." Tatsuki complained.

"Mmhmm." Rukia said, not listening.

"Someone tall."

"Mmhmm."

"Someone with weird eyebrows."

"Mmhmm."

"Someone with long red hair that's tied up."

"Mmhmm."

"I'm talking about Abarai." Tatsuki deadpanned, tired of acting.

"Mmhmm... WHAT?" Rukia yelled, this had finally caught her attention, "YOU LIKE RENJI? THAT LAME PINEAPPLE HEAD?"

"Heheh, finally got your attention." Tatsuki said, then sticked out her tongue to tease Rukia.

"Wait... you were joking, right?"

"Hmmm, maybe~" Tatsuki said in a playful tone.

"What are you doing with Rukia-chwan, you gorilla?" Chizuru came into the group and asked defensively, then hugged Rukia's head. Tatsuki ignored Chizuru and continued talking with Rukia.

"By the way, Rukia, do you know what's taking Orihime?" Tatsuki asked.

"Not really.. I saw her being called out by a guy named Ishida Uryuu." Rukia answered.

"Ah, she came back." Tatsuki said, looking at Orihime entering the classroom with her face red. Ishida walked in afterwards and sat on his seat, blushing. "Hey, what happened, Orihime?"

"... Ishida-kun confessed to me..." Orihime whispered, her eyes were in a daze as if what had happened was a dream.

"WHAT?" Everyone screamed, all their eyes in shock, even Hanatarou was looking in their direction. They saw Orihime covering her face with her hand, and shaking her head side to side.

"Ahhhh... I don't know what to do." Orihime wailed.

"... Don't you like him?" Rukia asked bluntly.

"..."

"You don't?"

"... I... umm... sorta... do..." Orihime said, her face and ears started getting red.

"Then shouldn't you say yes? If you guys have a mutual love, then go for it!" Rukia encouraged. She thought it was stupid how Orihime didn't pursue Ishida although she liked him.

"Well... I want to be his girlfriend.. but I'm scared of what to do next..."

"Ehh, just go with the flow." Tatsuki added in.

"Alright... I'll tell him... soon." Orihime said, lagging the answer to another time. She was somehow not ready to answer.

"Everyone, class has started." Ochi-sensei said on time, she came running in the door right as the bell rang. All the students turned to her and returned to their desks. Before she could take out her clip board that she always started out the day with, the door opened, revealing the carrot-top delinquent. He had his bag on one side of his shoulder and his hands were in his pocket. "Kurosaki, late again."

"Yeah." Ichigo answered, then went to the back to his seat. While on the way, he passed by Rukia, their eyes locked together. They held the stare for a long time before he reached his seat and sat down. He then moved his eyes to the window again.

Rukia's eyes were still on him.

* * *

"So, you're sixteen?" said a man with a long forest green haori* on, he wore a hat and his blonde hair sticked out in tufts. He was looking at a piece of paper on the table. Rukia and him were in a restaurant that was on break currently.

"Ah yes, my name is Kuchiki Rukia and I'm sixteen. I attended Karakura High School..." Rukia said tensely. She was nervous on her interview. She really wanted to get this job.

"Why do you want to get this job?"

"Renji preferred it to me... besides that, if you hire me, I promise I'll work hard, be on time and won't slack off on my work. I'll make customer service boost up with my skills!"

"Hmmm..." The man gave her a serious look, then it loosened and he put on a smile. He patted her shoulder and said, "You can work starting from today! The name's Urahara Kisuke!"

"HAH? What? That's it?"

"Yep."

"W-what? Really? You just needed that long to think about it, Urahara-san?" Rukia stuttered, it was so disbelieving that the owner of the famous Dancing Moon was hiring her just like that! This was absurd, he should have thought more about it... but Rukia didn't say anything more. This was perfect. "So, are you going to give me my uniform right now?" Rukia asked curiously, she had looked around and saw that there was no girl employee... They all wore uniforms. It had a white collared shirt with a black tie, grey vest and black slacks and a huge black apron going from waist and all the way down. It was a unisex uniform, everyone had the same thing on.

"Ah, let me get it for you." Kisuke said, then left Rukia in the room waiting. Before he left, Rukia could hear him mumble: "Maybe now there'll be a little more male customers..." Rukia let the comment slide, right now she was too occupied in this fancy restaurant.

There was a big chandelier in the middle of the restaurant. A bar stand was in there and wine glasses hung upside down, shining brightly. The room was lit barely, giving it this mystifying feeling, there was a cash register right next to the entrance... and their was a second floor. "Wow..."

"Ahh, I see you like the interior of this restaurant.." Kisuke said, then smiled at her. He handed her her uniform. Rukia received it with both hands and bowed in thanks.

"Yes, it's really elegant." Rukia said, still peering at everything. It looked so fascinating to a person who rarely saw these things. Then she asked, "Oh! I've noticed you have a bar... isn't it illegal for a sixteen year old to handle alcohol?"

"That, we can go around that law. When someone orders alcohol, please tell someone who is legal to handle alcohol beverages. Do not open it, or touch it." Kisuke said.

"I see..."

"Well, get it started! Go dress in the restroom and start working by shining the tables!" Kisuke ordered, then gave her a huge grin than before.

"Yes Boss!" Rukia said cheerfully. This felt very refreshing. Her first job.

_'No matter what, I won't let anything mess this up!'_

* * *

Rukia was just about finished with wiping the tables. She wiped a sweat off of her forehead and gave a long stretch at her shoulders. It felt good to work.

"Kuchiki-san! It's opening time." Kisuke said. Rukia turned around to see that Kisuke was opening up the doors. The cold wind blew into the restaurant giving it a refreshing feeling. Rukia saw Renji running into the restaurant, panting. He had his tie loose and ran up to Rukia.

"Oi, am I late?" Renji shouted in front of her face, making bits of spit flying on her face.

"NO, AND STOP SHOUTING!" Rukia shouted back, wiped the spit off of her and then kicked his shin. "Come on, let's get working." she ordered, then walked away without checking if he was alright or not.

"That little..." Renji grumbled, he was holding his leg in pain. Although Rukia was short, she was a very powerful kicker. "Oi! Wait up!" Renji called out, then chased her. They went inside the staff room. Rukia saw that boys were lined up and were facing the front door. No girl in sight. Maybe the job was too tough?

"Oi oi, we have to hurry, we have an inspection." Renji said, then he lined up.

Rukia lined next to him and asked, "Inspection?"

"Yeah, we have it everyday, this restaurant is known for it's 'fanciness', The head waiter checks us." Renji whispered, "If you piss him off, he gets really scary." Just when he said that, the door came open and a bald man was standing in front of them. He gave a scowl at everyone. His eyes searched at them then his eyes rested on Rukia.

"Hmmm... fresh meat." He said then gave a grin.

"One thing you have to watch out..." Renji whispered, then went to the most softest voice he could put, "Never call him _bald_."

"BASTARD! I HEARD THAT!" The head waiter said, surprising Rukia and Renji. "Don't think I can't hear! I'm older than you, but me, Madarame Ikkaku, have pro ears!" Ikkaku said, pointing at Renji furiously.

"I-I'm sorry, Ikkaku-san..." Renji said, shrugging his head.

"HMPHF! SAY IT ONE MORE TIME AND I'LL KILL YOU!" Ikkaku shouted then flipped Renji off. "And fix that tie!" As if on cue, Renji quickly tightened his neck tie and gulped.

_'He is really short tempered...' _Rukia thought disbelievingly.

"NOW, Report your name!" Ikkaku ordered Rukia and pointed at her with glaring eyes.

"KUCHIKI RUKIA SIR!" Rukia yelled tensely. She did not want to get Ikkaku mad.

"WELL KUCHIKI, JUST BECAUSE YOUR NEW HERE, I'M NOT GONNA GO EASY ON YOU! IF SOMETHING HAPPENS, IT'S YOUR OWN PROBLEM!"

"YES SIR!"

"Good.. now-"

"Araaaa~ We have another worker joining us~" Kisuke interrupted, barging into the staff room. He opened the door slightly and Rukia and the rest of the staff could hear feet dragging the pavement.

_'Wow... another employee all of the sudden...'_

Rukia's eyes widened. She saw who came in, it was the tall familiar orange head. He had his hands in his pocket, and he had the waiter uniform on. He moved his eyes along the waiters and gave no surprise to Renji, but when he rested his eyes on Rukia, she could've sworn that she saw a hint of surprise in his eyes.

He walked along the people and reached to Rukia.

"Ichi..."

He passed by her.

"-go..."

* * *

Ichigo walked over to the restaurant called Dancing Moon. It was difficult at first because of Ishida's poorly drawn map of the direction, but the orange head managed. He was at least a bit safe. He strode to the open doors. _'Shit..' _It was already opening time. He had to hurry, because he just wanted to get it over with today. He was too lazy to go another day. Today was a day where he felt like doing this.

Ichigo peeked his head in the restaurant. It was very polished and one of those five star restaurants. He walked into the place casually and looked around some more. The scenery was too interesting.

"Like what you see, customer?" Ichigo whipped is head around to see who had sneaked up behind him. He gave a hard stare at a man who was wearing a suspicious hat, a dark green haori, and some casual dark pants.

"Who are you..."

"Haha, I'm the owner of this beautiful place! And you...?" asked Kisuke.

"I'm... looking for a job here."

"Hmmmm a job, I see..." Kisuke gave a good look at Ichigo. He was very shallow. He only hired people for their looks, when it came to business, he knew how it went. It was mostly that business was attracted because of the attractive people! (A/N: SO DAMN TRUE! I went to this Korean BBQ and they didn't have variety, but somehow there were only good looking guy waiters, and all the freaking girls were drooling for them =.=''...)

_'...'_

Kisuke suddenly gave Ichigo a thumbs up and a wink, "You're hired! Just give me your application!"

_'...the hell...'_

Ichigo searched in his pocket for the crumbled up paper and handed it over to Kisuke. He grabbed it and looked at the application. "Hmmm... you're pretty young too..." Kisuke mumbled. "Well, let's get your uniform, change in the restrooms." The man in the cloak ran to a room, then came back holding a neatly folded uniform in both hands. Ichigo took it from him and started walking and turned.

"Ah! Other way..." Kisuke peered quickly at the application, "Kurosaki-san!"

He gave a small nod and turned to the other corner. Their were two doors, one women's restroom and the other was the men's restroom. He clasped the handle of the men's and turned it. Inside was polished white tiles, a huge mirror, three sinks, toilet stalls, urinal stalls, and a hand dryer. Ichigo went in one of the toilet stalls and began to unfold the clothes. He held up the uniform in front of him to see it. It was very monochrome, the way he liked things... his life was already a monochromed color. He took off his clothes and quickly dressed into his uniform. The orange head came out of the stalls and stared at himself in the mirror.

Maybe to him, he looked like a mess, but to others, the uniform fit perfectly to his looks. It made his body structure stick out more, to show his toned lean muscles under the fabrics.

Ichigo went out of the restroom and saw that the strange man with the hat was waiting for him, looking eagerly at him, "Well well, looks good. Now follow me. I'll lead you to the staff room!" The man lead him back from where he started, and walked to a door near the kitchen, the odd man turned the knob and said, "Welcome to Dancing Moon, Kurosaki-san, I'm Urahara Kisuke." Behind the door, there was muffles of shouting but Ichigo did not care to listen.

Urahara yanked the door open.

"Good.. now-"

"Araaaa~ We have another worker joining us~" Kisuke interrupted, barging into the staff room. He opened the door slightly and Ichigo didn't peer in. He didn't want to get close with anybody, especially at work. Ichigo stepped forward when he saw Kisuke motioning him to come in. He walked along, slowly making eye contact with everyone, until he stopped on one coworker. She was that familiar black haired, purple eyed midget. The girl who tried to butt into his life, the person who resembled that girl...

Ichigo calmly drawed his irises away from the small figure and walked straight forward. He had to ignore her, ignore her ignore her. _'If I don't pay attention to her, she won't come into my life...' _As he passed by her, he could hear it. He could hear her saying his name softly. "Ichigo." He could see her in his peripheral vision, she was turning her head to his direction, stared at him for a moment, then relaxed herself and drooped her eyes down to the floor.

"Oi, Oi... we have two fresh meat huh?" said the bald man with a twisted scowl on his face, "Urahara, you only got 'em for their looks didn't ya?"

"My, my... I would never! I analyze their skills and how much customers they'll bring me!" Kisuke said defensively, bringing his fan up to his face to lightly fan himself. "Well, I best be going now~ Take care of them for me, Ikkaku~" He then shut the door on Ikkaku.

"That guy..." Ikkaku rolled his fists to tight balls, "One day I'll stuff that guy into a box, make a cow eat that then make that cow shit out his remains, and then he'll be fertilizer for my garden!... WHICH I DON'T HAVE!" Ikkaku cut himself when he caught himself spilling his own secret. Yes, although this man had anger management issues, he found gardening very relaxing.. He cleared his throat to get back on topic: "Ahem... well, let's introduce ourselves... my name is Madarame Ikkaku and..."

Ichigo could care less about the people he was working with. They were all meaningless things in his life... meaningless...

Yes. He grew accustomed to that word: meaningless. The world was nothing, and nothingness was monochrome. As time went by, that monochrome grew darker and darker, until he couldn't see any color in sight. He peered at everything as nothing. Day after day, everything grew into nothing, the things which was supposed to be thrilling... happy, was nothing.

Why was he still alive right now?

He didn't know himself.

Maybe it was to punish himself... to make him live with the guilt...

"Hello everyone, my name is Kuchiki Rukia." The voice said calmly and quietly, interrupting his thoughts. Ichigo blinked a little... he was startled. It was only a flash of it. He couldn't see the genuine thing, it was in his peripheral vision, but it might have not been what he thought it was... but.. was it...

Color?

* * *

"Hello! How are you guys doing?"

"Ah, we're fine, we're fine." said a couple of old men. Rukia hadn't really expected it, but Dancing Moon attracted a lot of powerful businessmen.. instead Rukia thought that this place attracted, spoiled, rich couples. Rukia shook her head, and payed attention to her work. She shuffled through her apron, and took out the order receipt. "What would our guests like to order?" Rukia asked politely, with a nice smile on.

"We would like 4 plates of foie gras." said the man who peered to be the leader figure of the group.

"Umm... sir, there seems to be only three of you...?"

"Yes, we are waiting for someone very important." The man said, he gave a very stern face and his shoulders were very tense.

"Ah... yes sir... umm.. would that be all sir?"

"At the moment."

"Yes sir." Rukia gave a small bow and left the table. That place just gave an aura of superiority that Rukia could not fit into, or get used to. If felt better when she was away from there. She ripped the order off of the check book and placed it on the order wheel. As she walked away from it, it kept spinning, showing that the chefs in the kitchen were working busily. "What the heck is a foie gras...?" Rukia mumbled to herself, then she placed herself in front of the door, waiting for another guest to arrive.

"It's goose liver..." Rukia turned her head slightly to see that Renji was standing next to her waiting for a customer too.

"I see..."

"..." Renji glanced at her, then stared straight in front of him. "Where's all that excitement you had earlier?"

"It's gone now."

"Because of him?"

"No!" Rukia answered immediately, shooting a death glare at Renji.

"I was just asking, stupid. No need to freak out on me." Renji said, then stuck out his tongue to tease her. "Anyways, how's it going so far?"

"Hmm... it's alright, all I do is take order for those boring businessmen..."

"Ehh, you get used to it you know? They're stuck up, pineappples in their ass people." Renji said, shrugging it off since it was a mundane thing to him. As if the shrug was a perfect signal, the huge glass doors opened to reveal another customer.

A tall toned man came into the restuarant. He was in a business suit but he quickly loosened the tie on him. He had black hair, gray eyes and a 69 tactoo on one of his cheek.

_'He's good looking...' _Rukia thought. But shook it off. It was only his look, but he was still a customer. "Welcome sir, let me escort you to your table."

The man looked around the tables to spot something familiar. He then peered at her, first he moved his eyes all around her face, giving a surprised expression then he gave a big grin to Rukia. "Sure, please escort me to those three old guys right there." He pointed at the table Rukia had just took her order at. She lead the way and bowed her head once more. She prepared to leave but her hand was suddenly yanked by someone. She turned her head slowly to see that it was the guy with the 69 tactoo...

"Umm... sir?"

"Stay for a while. I feel bored with all these grandpas." He winked at her, not loosening his grip. The "grandpas" glared at the younger man.

"Shuhei-san, please be serious, we are having a business meeting." then the old man's eyes settled down to Rukia, "Please let the waitress go. She is not to listen to our business affairs."

"Come on, Yamamoto-san," he put his feet of the table top, making all the men on the table scoot away and give a disapproving look, "I'm the leader of the most famous Shuhei Corporation, I produced Japan's most finest electronics and we're even expanding towards restaurants. Do we all seriously need to discuss about this?"

"You didn't make this corporation famous, your late father did and that's why we came to discuss about this. We're weary that such a young man like you will be taking over this business." Yamamoto started shouting, he was growing impatient.

"Sir, please let go of my hand..." Rukia said quietly so that she didn't look rude butting in. She had to go back to her work but this guy kept holding on to her hand. Rukia tried to yank it but she knew his grip was very strong when in fact, it looked very loose to others. "Sir.."

"Hey, hey, calm down. Say, you wanna go out after your shift is over? Dance in a night club?" He gave her another wink.

"I'm too young for that." Rukia said straight forwardly. She wasn't going to go out with a guy she barely knew. She gave a last budge; it didn't work. Now she had to yell, because she was getting sick and tired of this. "HEY YOU-" A flash of orange stood in her peripheral vision, and he took the hands and easily pulled them off of each other. He gave that same expressionles face he always did. He stared at everyone at the table, then he made eye contact with Rukia. Amber meeting with violet. She got hot under his gaze, and looked away quickly. He gently let go of her hand, and walked away...

"Who was that?"

Rukia didn't answer looking at where the orange head had disappeared off to and walked away to Ichigo's direction. She didn't want to talk to that play boy.

"By the way, it's Hisagi Shuhei!"

She saw the orange head walking towards the entrance way and Rukia followed. She stood next to him while he didn't react at all. A couple of seconds of silence passed by before Rukia spoke. "Thanks."

"... I did it as a fellow coworker. That's all..." The door opened again, and Ichigo took two ladies to a table. Before he passed by Rukia he said: "Don't think of it as anything."

"Sorry..." Rukia whispered. She felt her heart pounce when he had touched her. The feeling still prickled her hand, she seriously didn't know why she reacted this way whenever she was with him. It was just his aura that was so intimidating. "I did."

****

* * *

**OnigiriKami: Ahahaha... hope this chapter was alright... I didn't like how it ended so fast... I think I rushed it! SORRY! And if your confused why I added Shuhei in, it will all be revealed as the story goes by~ Ikkaku and Urahara was added in to be comedy relieves, because this story is wayyy to dark.. well for me. LOL**

**This chapter was supposed to be WAY longer than this, but I decided the other parts will be cut into the next chapter. Yeah, the next one will be hella dramatic, because I cut off the drama and postponed it to the next chapter... heheheheh xD**

***Haori: A japanese robe/coat**

**How was the chapter? :[**

**Oh yeah! You guys don't know this if you haven't checked out my profile, BUT I'm Korean... but sadly I'm taking Korean classes at school LOL We have an upcoming Korean music video project coming up and I'm gonna post it up on youtube soon... so... when I'm done with it... would anyone care to watch it? :O**

******Next Chapter...**

_"Why can't you mind your own business?" _

_"Because, I can't seem to leave you alone!"_

**I SWEAR! IF YOU PRESS THIS BUTTON BELOW: YOU'LL GET A COOKIE!**


	13. Chapter 13: Helping

_"What would you do if I told you I killed someone?"_

_"... I wouldn't believe it!"_

_"Why...?"_

_"Because, you're too nice."_

* * *

Rukia heard the chattering, forks and knives scratching the fine white plates and the pans, pots clanging on the stoves. She heard the scuffle of feet hurriedly serving their guest's orders and she heard the annoying laughter of those rich nobles, the nagging of the dishes not being as to their liking. Yes, this was how life was in Dancing Moon, a well known five star restaurant.

She grew accustomed to the works of this place. As one of the youngest employees, she had limits to what she can do and as the only female employee; she had gotten a lot more reception from male guests from the past week. She caught them from time to time giving her uncomfortable stares and she would awkwardly leave their presence... But that wasn't the thing that was ticking her off. The thing that was ticking her, was how all the spoiled bratty girls were clinging onto the male workers. They asked for phone numbers or gave their numbers without the employees asking. They grabbed and pulled onto the waiters' ties and gave a seductive look.

Those kinds of people...

"Come onnnn~ How about we go somewhere together. You. And. Me." said a lady at a table. Her voice was whiney and she gave a forced pouting face. Her long red nail slid slowly down the face of the emotionless teen. His eyes stared into hers with nothing in them, his feelings truly masked. Her other hand was holding onto his necktie, trying to bring his face closer to her, "I have everything you want. Looks, money, power, everything. And you, you're just missing out on me~"

Ichigo glanced at Rukia's direction when he sensed that someone was burning a hole into his head from staring too much. At that moment, Rukia instantly turned red and swerved her head to peer at the front of the doors of the restaurant. She had been staring at him for some time, getting slowly angered at how he wouldn't do anything to stop the lady.

_'What the hell __am__ I__ even__ mad__ about__?' _Rukia thought to herself. She didn't even know the reason why. Just seeing the lady grab his tie, and their faces inches away made her blood boil. She didn't like it one bit.

"Hey Rukia! What's up?" Rukia tilted her head up to see that annoying man that had been visiting her frequently.

Hisagi Shuhei.

He was clad in a grey business suit. His tie, as usual, was loosened to expose his neck and collar. His black shirt was not tucked and his hair was a ruffled mess. Hisagi had that poker face smile on, where nobody could read what was thinking in his head, what was being planned in it. He had acquired Rukia's name by the third time they met, because by that time, Rukia had been given her name tag. He snickered when he finally found out her name, she was not reluctant to give it to him, so he found out on his own.

"What do you want now?" Rukia asked, gritting her teeth and rolling her eyes. She didn't like how he was so... confident. They way he stared at her, the way he stride off, his body language... it was too confident in what he was doing. He gave an air of pride that was unmatched.

"Hmm, I came to see you."

"Well stop seeing me, because I don't want to see you." Rukia replied back.

"Hey, come on, don't be like that."

"You know what? I'm not going to deal with this..." Rukia sighed, then she gave a big smile to Hisagi, in which he reacted in a little jolt, "Welcome, may I escort you to your table?"

"..." Hisagi stared at the smiling little teen, then reciprocated the smile, "You may." Rukia gave him a small glare, before she began leading him to a random table. He sat on a small table with another empty chair facing him. There were three scented candles in the middle burning and a rose right next to it, appealing the eyes of anyone who saw it. Rukia took out two menus and placed them on the table.

"I'm guessing that," Rukia pointed at the empty seat, "is your date." She gave a sly smile and waited for his reactions. He didn't react, he was still putting on his big grin. His hands were folded together and he stared intently at her.

"Yeah, but she has to sit down first."

"UHH! Will you quit that?" Rukia's temper boiled. She could not take his little game anymore, his stupid smile and face that she really wanted to punch!

"Why should I? I'm interested in you." His voice was calm and slick. He was one of those people you would call a smooth talker. This comment made Rukia blush. He was so blunt about what he thought that it always surprised Rukia. He was handsome and he had a quick tongue.

"Why would you be interested in me?"

"Well... that's a secret." He said, and then he brought one finger to his lip, while his smile never disappeared off of his face.

"KUCHIKI! STOP SLACKING OFF!" Rukia twisted her head back to see that it was the temperamental head waiter. His veins on his naked head were all popping out and his eyes twitched at her. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"I-I'm taking order sir!" Rukia faced Hisagi again and gave him a scowl, "See, look what you did! I'm in trouble now!" she yelled-whispered with clenched teeth.

"Well, you never asked for my order." He said with a crafty tone of voice.

"Well hurry it up! Those people out there don't have all day!" Ikkaku pointed to the entrance. Today was a busy day and a long line stretched out with grubby customers. Their eyes full of envy at the people who were taking their time eating their expensively delicious food.

"Alright, Ikkaku-san!" Rukia said, and then she saw that Ikkaku nodded his head grudgingly and went off to yell at other people. She turned her head back to Hisagi; she saw the amusement written all over his face as he put on a big smirk. "What would you like to order…?"

* * *

"Let go of my tie."

"Excuse me?"

The lady with curly long blonde locks stared in disbelieve at Ichigo. Who was he to tell her what to do? She was the heiress of a famous hotel chain. She knew that most guys only hit on her because she was rich and powerful, but this man showed no sign of advance. She had to whine a little before, but he didn't give one reaction. He kept glancing past his shoulder…

"I said let go of my tie." Ichigo said bluntly. The woman was starting to annoy him. She was at it for more than ten minutes and he was sick of standing there, crouching at her height. The woman apparently didn't listen to him, so he grabbed her wrist, and forcefully pulled it off of his black tie.

"Hey! You don't know who I am!" She shouted, her voice started to fade away as he moved farther and farther away from her. He was walking towards the employee lounge. He had to take a break.

It was getting tiresome of all the girls grabbing ties, or the girls giving him signals. _'Annoying, annoying, annoying…'_ He thought to himself. The employee lounge had a large table with chairs for coworkers to be seated in sometimes, but most of the time, they stood in a straight line, waiting for the yelling bald man. He pulled out a chair, and slouched.

_"What would you do if I told you I killed someone?"_

_"... I wouldn't believe it!"_

_"Why...?"_

_"Because, you're too nice." __Him? Nice? Who was this girl talking about? All he's been ever since he met her was cold. He didn't give out much detail about himself and he would snap at her. But she would always come to this one particular spot, where he had been "camping out" for a week._

_"Me?" He asked, bewildered._

_"Of course, you!"_

_His face turned bright red. _

"HEY YOU! GET BACK TO WORK LAZY ASS!" Ichigo woke from his daydream abruptively and looked up. Towering above him was a scowling bald man. His forehead reflected the light above him and his glare showed the whites of his eyes. Ichigo calmly got up and left the lounge, he closed the door, hearing Ikkaku screaming that he ignores him.

He walked over to the front desk, waiting for a customer. He leaned on the desk and stared at the ceiling. He was tired. Tired of this life, tired of the routine. It was becoming too familiar. Too monochrome…

DING

The bell of the door rung and he saw a couple standing in front. The boy was very scrawny, with freckles on his face, while the girl had a huge bust and long black hair going down her shoulders. The scrawny guy gave a smirk at Ichigo; somehow, it offended him a little…

Ichigo didn't say a word, and lead them to an empty, two seated table. The man stared at him, expecting something: _'What? You can't pull out your own chair?' _Ichigo ignored the couple and went straight on to taking out the check book. He also pulled out the pen in his apron, and gave them a look to start speaking. They gave him a death glare and pulled out their chairs, making a screech sound.

"Honey, what do you want to eat?" The man said in a very peachy face.

"Hmm, I don't know, there are so much good things to choose from…"

"It's alright; you can choose anything you want." He smiled at the woman, and then glared at Ichigo, "That old hag finally passed away." He snickered.

_'What?'_

"Because of that bitch, I finally inherited all her fortune she left me. She deserved it too… leaving father."

A nerve snapped.

With much force, Ichigo kicked the man off of his chair. He heard the woman freak out and calls his name, which Ichigo didn't give a crap about and the people at the restaurant starts gasping. This low-life bastard didn't need to be recognized by him. Ichigo grabbed the collar of his shirt and punched him on the face. He fell down, and Ichigo started kicking him in the stomach.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW? YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Ichigo screamed at him. He didn't know the pain; he didn't know what it was like. This bastard didn't know what was like to love someone close to him.

He suddenly felt arms grabbing onto him, they were tucked under his pits and someone gave him a hard head lock, he turned his head around to see red hair. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"LET GO OF ME! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" Ichigo started thrashing in Renji's arms and kept wailing out loudly. He was going to kill this guy; he was going to kill someone who wasn't thankful for his mother, who was not thankful for his mother's love. A guy who was happy for his mother's death…

Cold water suddenly drenched Ichigo's face. Somehow, that cool liquid acted like a thing that calmed him down. He stopped struggling, and his wet locks hid his eyes, he was staring at the ground.

"What are you guys doing?" The voice of Ikkaku rang in both boys' ears. There was a silence that thickened the awkward mood. The silence, on top of everyone staring at them was extremely awkward. Everyone was staring… Especially her… "You think its okay to do this in front of everyone? Are you guys trying to soil the name of Dancing Moon?"

There was another silence. No one dared to speak, until Renji broke it, "I… I was trying to stop him..."

"Yeah, I know! But you stop him like that? It causes more chaos, you ass!" He gave a smack at Renji's head. Ikkaku turned to Ichigo, "And you… what was that about?" The orange head did not answer back. "YOU DUMBASS!" Ikkaku slapped the back of Ichigo's head just like what he did to Renji. "Pack your stuff and leave. Send me your resignation form tomorrow." Then Ikkaku stormed off to somewhere else, probably trying to inform Kisuke the news.

Renji glared at Ichigo then he went to the employee lounge, not wanting to stay in the same room as the guy that pissed him off. Ichigo stood where he was, until he took a step towards the terrified man that he beat up. The man gave a little shriek, and Ichigo reached out for his tie in a very strong manner. The scrawny guy's face started to turn pale at Ichigo, as if waiting for another punch from the orange delinquent…

Ichigo wiped off the water on his face with the man's tie.

He gave an expressionless glance at the man, and then started walking up to the front door, with pocket in hand. He didn't want to look defeated; he went with cool pride.

"Ichigo…" The petite raven hair whispered his name as he passed the register counter where all the waiters waited at. He didn't stop for her, he didn't want to… because he was afraid that he would change his mind for her…

He went through the door, and began walking to Ishida's house. He didn't turn back, he wouldn't! If he did… Ichigo came to a complete stop as he felt someone grabbing tightly onto his wrist. He wouldn't turn back; he knew who it was… he must not look at her…

"Let go of me…"

"…Why did you do that?" Rukia ignored him.

"Why can't you mind your own business?"

"Because, I can't seem to leave you alone!" Rukia yelled back, Ichigo could feel her squeezing onto his wrist, and now sliding her hand slowly to his hand, "I know you're baring something horrible… so let me help you…"

Ichigo turned his body around and slammed Rukia's body at the wall of Dancing Moon. Both of his forearms were positioned by both sides of Rukia's body and their faces were inches away from each other. "How can you help me?" Ichigo shouted, "When you don't know my pain!" Their eyes stared into each other's for a minute or two, no one daring to speak a word.

"Am I interrupting something?" Rukia was the only one who turned her gaze at the voice that interrupted their confrontation. She could still feel Ichigo's eyes burning on her. It was Hisagi.

"Don't pity me." Ichigo suddenly said, which caught Rukia's attention, but before she could do anything, he strode off quickly to a place unknown to her.

"What's up with him?" Hisagi asked. Rukia gave him a small glare then she tried to walk past him, but he grabbed on to her hand, still staring at where he was facing. "Do you want me to comfort you?" Hisagi's voice was now serious. His eyes slowly went onto Rukia.

"I'm fine." Rukia said in a tired voice, and then she shook off his hand and went in the restaurant.

* * *

**OnigiriKami: So I updated :]... It's short but alright I guesssss**

**HEY GUYS! IM DONE WITH MY MUSIC VIDEO, AND I MADE A YOUTUBE CHANNEL WITH MY FILM CREW! SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE!**

**www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=JBMBBys0KP8**


	14. Chapter 14: Bad Day

**OnigiriKami: Hey... been long since I updated... sorry I got extremely lazy, I had it almost finished already but I didn't get a chance to upload LOL sorry guys :[ I will be making the next chapter real soon :] so wait. This chapter is a bit short because I don't wanna spoil things too quick :P**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH**

**READ AND REVIEW PLEASE :]**

* * *

**_Last Chapter_**

_"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW? YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Ichigo screamed at him. He didn't know the pain; he didn't know what it was like. This bastard didn't know what was like to love someone close to him._

_He suddenly felt arms grabbing onto him, they were tucked under his pits and someone gave him a hard head lock, he turned his head around to see red hair. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"_

_"LET GO OF ME! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" Ichigo started thrashing in Renji's arms and kept wailing out loudly. He was going to kill this guy; he was going to kill someone who wasn't thankful for his mother, who was not thankful for his mother's love. A guy who was happy for his mother's death…_

_Cold water suddenly drenched Ichigo's face. Somehow, that cool liquid acted like a thing that calmed him down. He stopped struggling, and his wet locks hid his eyes, he was staring at the ground._

* * *

"Ahh, my life is finally perfect~" Ishida came walking into the living room; he looks at the figure lying on the couch. The smile on his face starts to disappear now as he saw the orange head. "Kurosaki… you're home early…"

Ichigo lay where he was with a pillow covering his face. He was wearing his uniform and Ishida could see that his shirt was soaked wet. Ichigo did not move or answer back at the bespectacled teen.

"Oi, can you hear—", Ishida was interrupted by his cell phone ringing. He shuffled through his back pocket of his jeans and found his phone. "Hello…? Who is this?" There was a few seconds of silence that passed by until Ishida took the phone off of his ear and held it over Ichigo's body. "Oi, someone is calling for you." He waited until Ichigo slowly picked up his body and gave a quizzical glance.

"Who?"

"I don't know, he just said to give it to you…"

Ichigo rolled his eyes a little, before snatching the phone off of Ishida's hand and placed it at his ear quickly. "Hello?" He said questioningly.

"Ichigo!"

...

That voice… That voice was so familiar to Ichigo. That deep tone of voice, that voice he hadn't heard in a long time… That voice that he never wanted to hear again, that worried, sad voice that belonged to the man that he had respect and disappointed.

Ichigo threw the phone to the ground strongly and broke in half.

"What the hell was that for?" Ishida yelled.

"Change your phone; don't let that person ever speak to me again." Ichigo commanded. He didn't want to hear that voice anymore; he had been avoiding that man for a long time, so long… so long that he couldn't remember his face…

"Well you didn't have to break my phone! I could've changed my number easily!" Ishida gave Ichigo a death glare. "Who was that man that you had to freak out like that?"

Ichigo gave him a quick glance, then turned around and lay down.

"HEY! Don't ignore me!"

* * *

"You know, they say that every sigh takes away your happiness?"

"Haahh…" Rukia sighed again. Renji had been looking at her curiously, all day after the incident in the restaurant; she had been acting like this. When they had gotten home, he saw that Rukia would look down and sigh at everything that came to her mind.

"Don't tell me… you're depressed over that orange delinquent?" Renji asked with a pointed finger and one eye squinted.

This comment had somehow snapped Rukia's attention awake when she heard about Renji talking about Ichigo, "What?"

Renji slapped his face in frustration, then shook his head, "Never mind, idiot."

"Ahh... I see." Renji gave jolt of surprise when Rukia accepted what he had just said.

"Oi… you're really out of it today…"

"Huh?"

"Never mind…" Renji said, and then he felt a strong vibration from his jacket that he was wearing. He brought it out and saw that he had gotten a text message. "Hey, watch the house while I'm gone. Ikkaku-san needs me for something…" _'Maybe a long, drunk lecture…' _Renji thought, and then mentally sighed. He went to the front door and hunched down to grab his sneakers, put it on and tie it. "For food…" He finally tied the ribbon, "It's in the refrigerator, I'm not gonna be back for awhile cause of Ikkaku-san, so eat and," Renji glanced at the depressed petite girl, "cheer up, idiot!"

Rukia still laid her eyes on the carpeted floor and gave another sigh, which made Renji annoyed. He got up, opened the front door, and then slammed it hard. "Geez, that idiot, when I say to cheer up, she should reply with a 'thank you!'" Renji said, making his voice to imitate Rukia. "And then she should give me a smile to reassure me or something!" He said, grumbling and bickering some more. He stood where he was, and stared at the door that he just went out of. "Hmphf serves her right though, I told her to stay away from that guy…" He gave his shoulders a shrug and closed his eyes, "He is dangerous!"

Renji's face was suddenly hit by the front door, which sent his chin flying up in the air and causing him to fall backwards. He tried to regain his step but a piece of pebble just had to be in his way, so he tripped over it and fell on his tail bone. "AHHH!" He screamed in pain, the most worst part of your body to land on besides your head, was the tail bone. Renji rubbed his soar bone, which seemed like he was rubbing his behind, and gave a pained expression. He peered up to see that Rukia was the one who opened up the door. "You idiot! Why'd you have to open the door so hard?"

"Ah… sorry, Renji…" Rukia said, as if she had just realized what she had done. Renji could see that there was panic in her eyes first, but when she rested her eyes on him, her panicking eyes settled down to relieved ones. _'Was she gonna tell me something really important, that she had to panic?'_

"What is it?"

"Renji…" Rukia whispered with a hint of awkwardness, "I… I have a favor to ask of you…" She finally said, then tried not to make eye contact. It was too weird for her to go to him, but she knew that he was the only one that could do it, considering how close he was to Ikkaku…

"Ehh? What is it?" Renji asked, now irritate by how Rukia was taking up his time. The more later he was, the more he was going to be lectured at by his senior. That bald man was very scary when he got mad; extremely scary that the thought of him getting pissed off made Renji's stomach whirl in pain.

"Well… that is…" She looked stubbornly at Renji, as if she couldn't believe she would be asking a favor from Renji. She was supposed to be independent, not this weakling that was asking for a help from one of the people that she admired. Also, he was the man that she owed to a lot… if it weren't for him, she would have ended up with the perverted pedophile…

"Hurry up!"

"I WANT YOU TO ASK IKKAKU FOR ICHIGO TO HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE!" Rukia burst out, getting frustrated at how Renji was beginning to get cranky. Her hands were clenched tight into balls and her eyes were shut. She was getting ready for screaming and nagging from Renji. Their relationship was almost seen as a mother and daughter… well except Renji wasn't a woman…

"And why should I do that for that bastard?" He snarled at the sound of his name. That guy had caused enough trouble for him.

"Renji… please…" Rukia said quietly now, as if her energy had gone away from the yelling. Her eyes drooped down and her eyebrows arched in a pained expression, "… please…"

"…" He could not believe that the person standing in front of him was actually Kuchiki Rukia. The strong, independent woman was disheveled to a begging little girl… all for that guy! It was a bit pathetic in his eyes… but… "Alright…" to make Rukia happy, he would go through any lengths.

"Thanks Renji—" Rukia was interrupted by Renji's fingers squeezing her cheeks and stretching them. "OWOWOWOWOW!"

"The only way you can repay me is if you cheer up!" Renji said and gave a final pinch at her cheeks. He let them go and saw that they were both bright red and a tear was coming from the corner of her eyes from the pain. "If all you can think of is him, then go do something to take your mind off of that guy." He then turned around to leave, "See ya." He waved his hand without turning.

"Hmphf!" Rukia pouted, and then started laughing to herself, "Acting all cool like that… doesn't fit him at all. Back then, he would be a loser and always looking at those dirty magazines." She gave another sigh, not a sigh of sadness, but a sigh that was like you were trapped in a very stinky locker and you felt refreshed by that clean air. A refreshed sigh.

"Maybe I should go there…" Rukia said her thoughts out loud. She then rubbed her cheeks a little, "Ahh that really hurt, I'm gonna kill Renji when he comes back!" _'Yeah… I shouldn't be depressed, live life to the fullest and keep moving forward… that's what I taught myself…' _Rukia then gave a determined nod and straightened her posture more, she ran back into the house and brought a change of clothes, she was still in her uniform. She had pulled out a black vest that was attached together with a white collared shirt and some dark green cargo capri pants. She tied her hair up and wore a small manila side bag that had things that she needed in them. "Yosh! I'm ready." She slipped on some sandals.

_'No use in staying home when all I think of is him…'_

* * *

Rukia was now out of breath, she had been running the whole time, trying to make it in time at the town center. She was afraid if she was any later, she would miss the mysterious guitarist. She was betting that he would come at this time; it was the exact time that she had first met him. Rukia thought that since he came out back then, it would be his scheduled time to play at the town center.

She walked around in the middle, and saw the fountain in the middle spraying and exploding with water. There was glimmering of coins in the fountain and she smiled to see how many people made wishes on this one place. Rukia rummaged through her bag and pulled out a coin. She cupped it gently in her hands and closed her eyes lightly. She started whispering a little and after a few seconds, she opened her eyes and tossed it into the small pool of water in which she heard the plopping noise it had made which pleased her ears.

"Do you believe in miracles?"

Rukia whipped her head at the voice that had spoken behind her. She gave a surprised look at the man, then she started to blush a little. It was the guitarist… He was still in his same clothes, a hat on his head, and a hood draping his hat and the sides of his face. On the ground next to him was his guitar case. On his lap was his guitar sitting, and resting on his left arm. He sat on a very low circular wall that went around the fountain and which people used to sit on as a makeshift bench.

His face was still not visible, for his hat and hood covered his eyes and nose, only revealing his chin, which was extremely dirty. On the chin was a big smile plastered on it. "Do you believe in miracles?" He asked again.

"Miracles…" Rukia said, as if it was a new word and wanted to test out if it sounded right.

Miracles: that was such a beautiful yet strong word. Such a meaningful word that when heard, wanted to make you feel like you're worth something that made you happy. Something that made you feel meaningful and something that made you feel relieved. Yet, it was something that made you feel scared because miracles were a mystery.

"No."

She didn't believe in miracles. In her life, everything was only chance. Everything that had happened was always chance, it was either gain or lose something. Miracles? That word always made her laugh bitterly. After all she had been through… how could she believe in them?

"I see…" The man said, his tone of voice a bit disappointed, "Then why'd you throw that coin?"

"Well, only for fun!" Rukia said, and then she smiled to lift off the heavy feeling in the air. She didn't come here to be more depressed than how she was right now. "Is it alright… if you play a song for me right now?"

The homeless' smile slowly crawled back onto his face and he started to nod. He started strumming the strings of the chords that came out nicely into a song. The song that Rukia had heard, the song that had made Rukia smile so much too. Then she remembered what had happened back then. "Excuse me…" He stopped playing the song. "Back then… why did you kiss me?" Rukia yelled out.

"…" The man gave a smile again, then began to speak in a quiet voice, "Well, I don't know myself." His smile then began to increase. A vein started to pop on Rukia's forehead, that smile was so familiarly annoying… but she couldn't put it to which it belonged to…

"You… you seem familiar…" Rukia said, squinting her eyes in suspicion.

"Ehem…" He cleared his throat awkwardly. His tone of voice even sounded familiar.

…

"No…"

"What?"

"It can't be him…" Rukia went closer to the man that had always been covering most of his face. She saw that he froze, and then she ducked down, he still didn't move an inch. Rukia pushed away his hood a little and pulled over his cap an inch... _'69' _Then the man was pushed over to the other side of where he was. "IT IS YOU!"

"Ahh..." Hisagi groaned in pain, he rubbed the back of his head to feel a bump forming. The hat on him had slid up to expose his entire face and the hood fell off of him. "You caught me." He said, not mad at all about the bruising bump and smiled at Rukia. He could see that she was towering over him because he was still on the ground, and she gave him a long glare.

"What are you doing? Acting like a bum!" Rukia yelled at him. "You fraud! Are you trying to make fun of the people in poverty?"

"No, it was because it was fun-"

"You think it's funny?"

"No, that's not what I mean..." Hisagi said, he was getting a bit irritated by how she kept interrupting his explanations, "... it's fun... meeting kind hearted people..." He lowered his eyes and smiled. "Kind hearted people are pretty rare to find, coming from this era of new generations." Rukia started to blush, it meant that he thought she was kind hearted... which she didn't really think she was...

"H-How do you meet kind hearted people by dressing like a homeless?" Rukia asked, bewildered.

"Well, it was just for fun at first... I wanted to really escape my spoiled life sometimes and just play songs for random people!" Hisagi explained. "But as I kept playing, I met people that would give a crap about a bum... So basically, I met wonderful people!" Hisagi gave a smile. "But, when I met you... maybe it was weird, but I got interested in you, and out of nowhere I kissed you..." Hisagi said straight out and then started to laugh awkwardly. "Maybe it's love at first sight~"

_'Ugg! That straight forwardness again...' _Rukia groaned mentally, her cheeks were flushed red and it felt as if someone could grill something on them.

"You should try it."

"Hell no!"

"Suit yourself, but your missing out on life." Hisagi said, "Isn't it regretful to waste your life, when its full of things that you should look forward to?"

Wasting life, wasting time... Was that what Rukia was doing? Maybe... she didn't have any goals or motivation... She didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up... This was a thing that haunted all teens her age: after school, after finishing all that tiring work from school... what'll happen next? Hisagi... made her think too much about her life. "I wouldn't know... because I've been living a life of regret..." Rukia whispered sadly when she came to a realization that she had nothing in her life that was enjoyable, nothing worthwhile... no miracles to wait for...

"Well," Hisagi said, "what if I make your life less regretful?"

"Hah!" Rukia started to cross her arms on her chest, "Such corny lines! No. Thank. You. I can live a less regretable life when I find the motivation to, I don't need your help." Rukia said, turning around to walk back home, "You just ruined my day again!" she stormed off, not wanting to look back, he had just made her more and more depressed and made her wonder things she didn't want to know, things she had been avoiding for a long time...

* * *

Her feet had gotten soar and under them blisters began to form. Each time she put pressure on them, it started to throb with burning pain. She limped a little as the pain started to increase, she was just a few more steps from her house. Before she could even take another step, she heard a long groan behind her, she whipped her head and saw a shadowy figure walking aimlessly to her direction. It was a man from the deep voice she heard of his singing. His voice sounded loopy and lazy, as if he was drunk...

Rukia stopped and went closer when she thought she saw the familiar looking bandanna wrapped around his head.

"Ohhh~~ My life is a draggggg~~" Came the terrible voice of Ganju. "Only if she stopped yelling at me~~ That old hagggg!" His eyes were a little droopy and he reeked of alcohol. He stared at the person in front of him and concentrated on her, for his mind was slowly processing things. "Oi, oi, oi... you're that bastard's girlfriend!" He said in a very drunk voice, his eyes still looking as if they were not awake. He went over to her and put his arm on her shoulder for support. "Where's he? I havta tell him somethin'!" Ganju started yelling angrily, "Cause of his orange hair... cause of that... I mistook him..."

"Oi!" Rukia panicked, Ganju had suddenly fallen asleep on her and now she was trying to keep him standing up. "Wake up!" She heard slight mumbles coming out of the bulky guy, "Ahh! Sucha crappy day today!" She turned her attention back to Ganju, "Oi, where's your house? I'll take you there!"

There was a silence, then Ganju started mumbling some address, it took Rukia a few tries to finally understand what he was saying. "Okay, I'm going to take you home, okay?" Rukia shouted as clearly as she could. She then began walking back from where she had just come from.

No way was she going to let him stay at her house.

* * *

"Huh?" The bald man in the stand said, his face full on disbelieve that his faithful coworker had even proposed this. Abarai Renji was facing him on his stool, he was starting to get nervous under the man's gaze. He knew already that this proposition would be rejected already, but he had asked anyway for his dear friend and his sister figure. "Say that one more time." Ikkaku said, still unwilling to believe what Renji had said.

"... How about... letting Kurosaki Ichigo have another chance...?" Renji said again hesitantly and forcefully gulped. "I know he did all that!" Renji said quickly as he saw the head employee breaking his chopsticks. "But, he's... a good guy..." Renji said with every word forced, "Well, at least that's what I heard..." He whispered the last bit.

"..." Ikkaku took a moment before he answered, "If these words are coming out of you, then I have no reason to suspect anything... Abarai, I've known you for quite a while now, and your honest... although you look like a punk." Ikkaku said, then sipped on his drink. "I'll give him another chance if he explains why he did all those things..."

Renji stared at Ikkaku with shock and respect. The man he had respected had acknowledged and respected him also! Of course anyone would be over joyed and happy that the person they admire would admire them back. He felt a certain pride for the man in front of him, his sharp tongue and strong faith in him was very admirable.

Renji gave a huge grin and bowed curtly, "Thank you, sir!"

"Oi, oi," Ikkaku sipped his drink again, "You're makin' me look like some kinda gang leader."

* * *

Rukia peered at the building before her, her eyes squinted at the extremely oddly shaped house. "What the..." She saw the two arms jutting out of the ground and holding up a red sign with black characters saying "Shiba Kuukaku".

"Oi! Are you a Shiba?" Rukia asked, shaking the drunk man that was half sleeping on her.

"I'm Shiba Ganju-sama! The greatest..." He drifted back to sleep.

Rukia gave a sigh, then heaved him up. She went to the weird house and knocked on the doors, which suddenly opened with two big men with traditional Chinese clothing. They stared at the petite girl before them with suspicion in their eyes and then a curious look after they saw that she was holding up a member of the Shiba clan. "I found him drunk near my place... I'm a friend..." Rukia said, trying not to get into any trouble.

The two men nodded their heads and made room for Rukia to pass through, they then entered and lead the way to a shoji*. They opened it and bowed their heads for Rukia to come in. She looked in to see a huge room with tatami* mats and in the middle was a woman. She had black tufts of hair coming out of her beanie and her jacket had one sleeve that was limply laid. She gave an intimidating look at Rukia.

"Who are you?"

"I'm just here to drop off this guy..." Rukia said awkwardly.

The woman stared at her some more before she finally said, "Follow me." Rukia did as what the lady said and followed her to another room. There was a futon already set up and Rukia pushed Ganju off of her, which made a loud slam. She straightened her back, which felt extremely refreshing. "I thought I was gonna die..." Rukia finally said.

"I'm Shiba Kuukaku." Kuukaku said after a long pause. She looked through her pocket to take out a cigarette, she placed it in her mouth without lighting it. "And this dumb ass right here, is my little brother." Kuukaku stared at her sibling and then shook her head in disapproval. "Pitiful..."

Rukia felt uncomfortable now. She looked around to get her mind off. She saw a small wooden wardrobe, the futon, and a wooden table. And there was a picture on top of the table. '_Nothing special.' _

...

Wait.

Rukia jerked her head back to the picture frame, and she quickly moved towards it and snatched it. Her eyes were extremely wide, so wide that it looked as if her eyes might fall out. In that picture was that lady, Kuukaku, Ganju and...

"Kaien..."

_'Ah, just when it couldn't get any worse...'_

* * *

**OnigiriKami: Dun Dun Dun! Cliffhanger :P sorryyyyyyyy... LOL so this chap was short...**

***shoji: wooden sliding doors**

***tatami: those old floor boards in traditional japanese houses**

**Might be busy for this summer, I'm gonna visit my relatives and start filming this project for Nameless Film Crew ahaha so I'll try updating real soon! Hisagi was the vagabond! OMG LOL**

* * *

**_Next Chapter:_**

_"Then... I'll make you believe in miracles!"_

_"How can you make me believe in them."_

_"Because... I lost all hope before, just like you."_


End file.
